Aging Wisely: living today, preparing for tomorrow

i am traveling for the first time with a new friend and neighbor, another reason widow like myself.  In our own ways we are each trying to uncover the self previously hidden in a partnership.   When I am most in touch, and most honest, I find myself out of sync with either the mainstream or perhaps just in the current setting. My travel mate lives with a lot of fears.  Fears of the evil in this world, and there is certainly evil.  Fear of new and unknown settings.  Fear of people.  This evening I ask for a ride from another senior couple in our summer citizen senior complex.   I never thought for a moment that this wasn’t safe, and it was safe.   What evil could possibly lurk in the hearts and minds of a handicapped senior couple who have been living here since May 15?  I never hesitated asking for and accepting a ride with them.  My roommate would never have done that because there are evil people in this world.  How much we cut o...

This evening our Shalom Club was treated to a very special performance by the Tremble Clefs West Side Choir.  Yes, the Tremble Clefs because these are singers who Tremble due to Parkinson's Disease, a degenerative disease affecting an additional 60,000 people in the US each year.  At this time there is no cure.  But there is treatment for those who seek it out, and Tremble Clefs is one of the treatments.  One of our members, Fred Cohn, faced his diagnosis head on.  There's scarcely a day when I'm out and about in the community that I don't see Fred at the gym, in the clubhouse, walking down the street sun hat on, water bottle in hand.  He is courageous and he brought the Tremble Clefs to us.  One of the degenerative features of Parkinson's is the loss of muscles which flatten out the expression from your face, and may eventually silence your vocal muscles.  Fred is fighting back, as are the other 74 members of the west side Tremble Clef Choir, an...

49 Days of Intentions: A Healing Journey The Foundation for the Seventh Week Beginning the evening of Saturday, June 1, 2019 Malchut  — The Material World Our final week of this journey on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life focuses at  Malchut , the base of the central pillar, the level of the Tree that receives from all others. Energies from the higher  sefirot  manifest here, but they are hidden within what appears to us as the material world. This is where we can lose ourselves, and it is also the place in which we must find ourselves. Malchut  represents the "kingdom" where we live, and encourages us to become more open to the wonders of this place. So we seek to quiet ourselves in order to pay more exquisite attention to the myriad of impulses — physical, emotional, mental — with which each moment is filled. In this material world, the spiritual awaits realization. This week, I open to the fullness of my life. Day 43 Focus beginning the evenin...

The ego is a vehicle  Rabbi Ted Falcon We will spend the final two weeks of our journey focusing on the central pillar of the  Kabbalistic Tree of Life , where the levels of identity are represented. This sixth week, at  Yesod ,  we honor the self behind our experiences , the one at the center of our thoughts, feelings, and sensations.  While we tend to denigrate the significance of our ego identity, this  sefirah encourages a greater appreciation for the possibilities for which our separate self exists. The ego is a vehicle through which more profound spiritual consciousness can connect to the manifest world. So this week, we focus on the promise contained within our individual identities.        The Focus for the Sixth Week Yesod : The Foundation of Self  beginning the evening of Saturday, May 25 At  Yesod  ("Foundation"), we meet the self-awareness we call the eg...

On this path toward greater possibility  (the following is excerpted from Rabbi Ted Falcon   On this path toward greater possibility and expanded freedom,  we engage in meditative processes designed to encourage our availability for a more inclusive Wisdom, a more pervasive Love, and more effective ways of walking compassionately in our world. Surely, we live at a time of great yearning for the Love, Wisdom, and Compassion that flows from the shared Source of our being. We all use the equivalent of Focus Phrases all the time, but usually those phrases repeating in our minds simply support well-practiced patterns of thought, feeling, and action. Our intention is to use these days to release old beliefs that no longer serve us, and replace them with the energies of the Focus Phrases assigned to each week and to each day. These weekly and daily Focus Phrases are designed to help us step more effectively into new places of expanded possibili...

Our intention is to use these days to release old beliefs that no longer serve us, and replace them with the energies of the Focus Phrases assigned to each week and to each day. We all use Focus Phrases all the time, but usually we are simply repeating old patterns of thought and feeling. These Focus Phrases are designed to encourage us to step into new places of expanded possibility. The Jewish Wisdom tradition, fueled by the flowering of the Kabbalah in the 16th century, brought a spiritual focus to this seven-week period, relating each week to the energies of one of the lower seven levels on the  Kabbalistic Tree of Life . These weeks invite us to welcome the more profound Wisdom and Love that springs from the One Presence and seeks to express more fully through each one of us.  The two sides of the Tree reflect the difference between the form and that which it contains.  This fourth week, we return to the right side of the Tree, to put our focus at...

This week, I remember the silence within .  Day 15  My world is filled with the spirit of love.  I am blessed with friendships.  I spent the afternoon with Harvey, Lydia, and Iris.  We met Jeri at the ballet.  We laughed and enjoyed the ballet in common.  In the evening we gathered around Amy's table to enjoy dinner, wine, and conversation.  I don't need to be alone, not ever.  My world is filled with the spirit of love, I have only to be open to receive it and I can only receive it when I give love to others; those I know and those I don't yet know.   Day 16  I awaken to a deep inner compassion.  Deep inner compassion.  I'm not sure what that means.  Today I was kinder to myself, less driven to complete more tasks, more open to healing and resting.  This inner compassion is about being compassionate to myself .  That's a big one.  Being compassionate to myself.  This evening Sie...