COMMUNITY: Sage Sisters

“The key...is community,

which is so necessary for physical, emotional, and spiritual health

throughout life and especially as we age.

Ron Pevny, author of Conscious Living, Conscious Aging

For my emotional and spiritual health, after retiring from my profession as a therapist, I became intentional about building community. As a single introverted woman, this hasn’t been easy, but has been well worthwhile. In this post, I want to share with you about one of the communities I was invited to help form...the Sage Sisters.

We have been meeting once a month for a couple of years and have used resources to guide our exploration: Joan Chittister’s, The Gift of Years: Growing Old Gracefully; Angeles Arien’s, The Second Half of Life: Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom; and now Ron Pevny’s, Conscious Living, Conscious Aging.

All of us have been committed to a path of personal and spiritual growth and have a spiritual practice that sustains us. We enjoy attending lectures, taking classes and workshops, participating in book clubs and spiritually-oriented groups. One of us learned to play the piano at age 65. Another married late in life and adopted two teenagers.

We are an eclectic group. One of us has travelled abroad extensively with a special interest in visiting Black Madonna sites. Another of us has the privilege of being part of the decision-making in how to share and distribute funds in a family foundation. One of us volunteers for hospice and knits prayer shawls for hospitalized people locally and beyond.  Some of the issues we give our energy to include the environment, the food we eat, how we live in community, issues of injustice for the poor and disabled, how to attain world peace. 

Our focus is on making a difference in the world. We are each called to do that in different ways. We see this time in our lives as “give back” time, but any activities we invest with our energy and wisdom must be meaningful and purposeful. It is our hope that the world will soon recognize and honor the gifts elders have to offer. We enjoy sharing our wisdom and mentoring younger people. 

Two of us are published authors.

We intend to serve until we take our last breath, and at this time in our lives, we find ourselves letting go of the “do, do, do” of our younger years. We are drawn to an inward, reflective path. Crowds of people and noise have lost their allure.

We support each other in facing the challenges that come with aging consciously and with wisdom and grace. Most of us have health challenges. Our attitude is “WE are all in this together.” We’ve all had the experience of loss that comes with aging and we face together the need to “let go” of “what was” to more fully embrace “what is.”

As you can see, we are an amazing group of women. We range in age from 72-85. Even though we are older than the baby boomers, like them we intend to live and age consciously—with meaning and purpose.