Aging as a Spiritual Path
by Barbara Richards
“What do I have to look forward to?”
It was the first thought on my mind as I woke that morning. And it had been the first thought on my mind for weeks. What was going on? My normal buoyancy was gone, and life felt flat.
I was approaching my 60th birthday, and that morning I realized it was time to lean into this question rather than write it off to a poor night’s sleep.
What did I have to look forward to? As I thought about the upcoming decade, all I saw ahead was decline. In fact, it had started already. My muscles sagged where they had once been taut, my vitality lagged, and I battled daily with annoying brain fog. I didn’t like the look of the future.
A principle that has guided me since the early days of my spiritual journey is, as Ram Dass put it, everything can be grist for the mill of spiritual awakening. But is that true here? Can aging – with all its losses, changes and letting go – be a catalyst for new awakening? Prayerfully I brought this question to Spirit.
Soon Spirit revealed a deeper view of my life’s journey. The turning point came when I read Richard Rohr’s words in Falling Upward:
“In the first half of life, we are naturally and rightly preoccupied with establishing our identity – climbing, achieving, and performing. But those concerns will not serve us as we grow older. There is a further journey, one that involves challenges, loss of control…and necessary suffering which are actually steppingstones to the spiritual joys that the second half of life has in store for us.”
His wisdom pierced through the fog of despair. I suddenly understood. I had entered the second half of life, and its mission is entirely different from the one I had lived so far. I was embarking on a time of tremendous spiritual development with the potential of a new way of being. I felt hope.
I embraced the path of conscious aging (also call spiritual eldering and sage-ing) which gave me the roadmap for this further journey. Enthusiastically I began the work of sage-ing – transforming society’s erroneous beliefs about age, harvesting my life wisdom, forgiving and making peace with my past, shedding what was done and expressing my authentic self more freely.
It has been 10 years since that pivotal moment. Now I trust, just like fruit knows how to ripen, that my soul knows how to mature into the presence of a wise, compassionate elder, who is a contribution to others, the world and the Great Work.
Now when the question, “What do I have to look forward to?” springs to mind, a quiet curiosity warms my heart and I feel a wave of gratitude for the mystery that’s unfolding.
Barbara Richards
first awakened to the possibility of aging as a spiritual path in her late fifties. It was life transforming. She is passionate about guiding others in living a vibrant, creative and fulfilling third chapter of life. Barbara is a life/work coach with over two decades of experience in private practice (visionworkcoaching.com). She is a spiritual director who completed the Pacific Jubilee SoulGuiding Program in 2020. She is also a certified Sage-ing leader with Sage-ing International (sage-ing.org)
