Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river — small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.

Bertrand Russell

How many of us feel that aging can be such a beautiful journey. Today you are more likely to hear a group of older friends engaging in what one friend called an organ recital. Your hip , my knee, his prostate her heart. Reduced to body parts, eroding, we lose the thread. The awe that is this human moment. We move easily from the sacred of our existence to the fading utility of our bodies.

I asked a writer and poet who I have come to know, what it has been like for him as he passed seventy. He said that with hair gone white he would walk down the street and feel more and more invisible . That was hard to hear. A man with so much to give through his writings and his care for his community felt he was fading away.

For years now I have been facilitating workshops on turning away from a mechanical view of getting older to helping others, and myself, discover the wonder of "merging with the universal life" as Russell so eloquently said. Imagine if this quote, "the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being." formed the basis of our conversations. Yes getting older has it's physical challenges but I prefer to keep my organ recital brief and dig deeper into gratitude for this crazy blip of existence in a universe of 2 trillion galaxies. It's been a while since I gathered people together to chart a new path to becoming old and improved. I wonder if it's time to gather virtually again and explore. Do you seek renewed purpose, a chance to conquer that feeling of separateness and the company of fellow travellers into the autumn of life and beyond. If so let me know at ralphbenmergui.ca and I will arrange.