“Yes–the springtime has need of you.
Often a star has awaited upon you to glimmer, did you notice it?
A wave rolled toward you out of the distant past,
or as you passed beneath an open window,
a violin yielded itself to someone.
All this was a sacred trust.
Did you rise to the call?”-Rilke
Programmed Theories on aging assert that the human body is designed to age and there is a certain biological timeline of decline that our bodies follow. This is apparently for the survival of the species, since if people lived too long, the species might die out. It has to do with biological evolution, and yet, we are so much more. The evolution of consciousness, or as Andrew Cohen calls it, “conscious evolution” involves making a choice, a firm and unwavering commitment to realize that which is important to you, otherwise known as your hopes and dreams that form your overall purpose in life.
Every week, I speak with several women who are past mid-life, often in a discovery session, who describe their passionate desire to offer their brilliant gifts for sake of making a difference in this world. Every week, I hear these beautiful, powerful women say:
o “I’m not sure if I have enough energy any more.”
o “I feel as if I am too old to put myself out there.”
o “I am embarrassed about how I look at this point.”
o “I’m not sure I want to start something up again.”
I know the feelings that accompany such thoughts. They are sadness, regret, and a deep fear that it is too late, while at the same time, a current of desire courses through your human veins, telling you that there is so much more.
“For of all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, it might have been…..”John Greenleaf Whittier
I believe it is essential that older women and men challenge this pre-programmed decline. We must empty ourselves and become receptive to the divine encodents which are available to all of us, no matter what our age. We must choose to attune to the frequency of higher vibrational truth, so that we can be the leaders we have been called to be. In order to do this, we must come into natural resonance with who we have always been, so that this new divine blueprint can be activated and expressed. There is no age limit to this.
The Soul is the journey of attention through our lives—where we put our attention. If you have a dream that you keep putting on the back burner, you are not putting your heart and soul into your dream, which is why it is not happening.
Many years ago, I gave myself one of the best gifts of a lifetime, and embarked on a 2-week canoe journey in the boundary waters between Minnesota and Ontario. I met 11 women who are life-long friends, and with whom I have had several reunions since. We call ourselves “The Portage Sisters,” and we were all challenged both physically and emotionally during our time together.
One of the countless embodied learnings from that trip came from Barbara, who was one of the leaders and in her late 50’s at the time. She had some physical limitations, and because of that, she was even more conscious of pacing herself and not re-injuring her back. Barbara’s mantra which she passed down to many of us, who were approaching mid-life, was “When you are older, you can do everything you did before, but you have to do it differently.” You have to do it with a new respect for who you are at this time of your life.
The truth is that one of the biggest reasons for people who consider themselves “older,” (50 and above as far as I am concerned) hesitate to take the necessary risks is not because they are any less capable than younger people. It is because you must humble yourself to become a beginner again, and revisit all the fears and insecurities that kept you from taking the risk all along—-and somehow you bought into the myth that you would have it all together by the time you arrived at that age.
Often you will have successful mentors (as I do) who are far younger than you are. You must be trainable, willing to learn, willing to surrender your false pride and instead, feel a genuine pride that you are putting your money where your mouth is, as they say!
Some Late Bloomers
Think about some of these incredible people, who began later in life:
- Juliia Childs did not even begin to cook until she was 40.
- Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Chicken fame was 66 when he started his now famous empire.
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Georgia O’Keefe revisited her passion for art later in life, and went on to paint for decades. She has been quoted as saying: “I've been terrified every day of my life but that's never stopped me from doing everything I wanted to do.”
There are many benefits to being a “late bloomer,” or as a friend of mine called me, “ever blooming.” In her article, “Women of the Hippie Generation are Emerging as the Primary Sacred Feminine Change Agents.” Marlow Aster writes: “ I believe that most 
of the hippy generation are like ‘sleepers' in our society, just waiting for a cosmic clock to tick over to the time when they are roused once again to their idealistic visions, except this time, they will have power, money and influence on their side, all of which were sorely lacking in their struggles during the sixties and seventies. And the lead seems to be coming from the women of that era.”
I have spoken to 3 women this week, in their early 60’s, who are on fire with a mission to contribute their particular gifts to the world. I had never met them before, and yet, we immediately recognized each other as “sisters” from an era when we set out to break the rules because they did not make any sense.
And here we are again. Not much is making any sense if you sit back and wait for change, either in yourself, or anywhere else. We have hopefully accumulated some wisdom along the way, and have a perspective to offer that is quite unique to being older. It is no longer about rebelling against the establishment, but co-creating something quite new that has been alluded to by countless spiritual teachers for millennia.
Years ago, when I studied psychodrama, I heard this anecdotal story about Sigmund Freud and Jacob Moreno (the founder of psychodrama) walking and having a conversation. Freud said to Moreno, “I analyze people’s dreams,” to which Moreno replied, “I help people dream again.”
I became a psychodramatist! I still am!!!
What have you been practicing and preparing to do all your life? Your Soul is ageless. You have all the time you need!
