I've been doing succession puzzling for some time now. I've got over 40 years of work in the form of an online cache of stories about people who have stuck their necks out for the common good, and a K-12 curriculum based on those hundreds of stories, also online. So far, I haven't found placement that'll work so it may go on auto-pilot, with a tiny cache of bucks to keep the online fees paid. The Internet may be the key to saving everything, including several books I've written. Just in case, mind you, someone someday might stumble upon any of it. Unlikely. But it does make this Old Girl feel better about the work I continue to do at 91. Yeah, still writing my Letters to the World. And savoring every moment of grace and beauty I witness, so delighted to be here, taking it all in.
I remember when you talked about what is my legacy? I came to that point and asked that too because I held the question thinking it a wise compass. And now? I leave the physical saving the world or creating something amazing big project to those younger, I went back to graduate school at 62 best thing I ever did. I think education at this level at that age is savored much more than when young. So now the work I do is to support those creatives and activists in their work..being the Elder I guess. Yet I have things of my own, just because, that I follow, with curiosity and when lucky...awe and wonder. Remembering the child...not in the infantile way that society has designated to 'old folks' - it is the child that has always been there that can delight in the smallest thing.....and follow something that interests them in life...with a sense of play. And then too there are the things I want to get in order like small books of my projects to leave behind not just a bunch of papers in a box. And yes there are times too when I wonder if I'll make it. My biggest hope for aging? that we drop words culture has given those of age, like pinning us like bugs, to diminish us with words like elderly. Or all the shoulds of what you are supposed to do and be at a certain age. Nope. Not us. Growing up in 60's 70's of "we don't have to do it that way", should be retrieved for these years as well. I have come to like the word Elder, in the indigenous way, because we've all gathered a lot of knowledge and importantly wisdom...how can we share that in support? On good days I don't have a fear of dying I have a fear I won't have enough time to live.
I love the image of having presence like children at play now, following fascinations. Yes, sage and infant can be alike in the kind of attention they pay.
Even before being in the kitchen this morning, I was stopped in the middle of the floor between the coffee sitting in the sink ready for the hot h2o and the kettle 5 feet away pulled in by each line, each quote, each response and thinking to myself opposing thoughts. Patti Smith at nearly 80, who is burning bright, calls what she does “work”, and the joy I believe it would be to let go of… what to call this urge in my being…to relieve myself creatively, stay relevant, have people see me, feel me, touch me, heal me, know me, hear me, understand me? And say to the entire world this that you experience witnessing me is what older looks like! Fuck you clichés about old ladies! Fuck you marketing definitions of me. Welcome slowness, thoughtfulness, carefulness, wisdom. I’m a grand mother. Grand human. I’m a privileged, fortunate, beloved; respected, admired, supported, loved; a friend to birds, children, strangers; an enemy of the status quo, slugs, and child harmers. Yes, to all this you write here! Yes, to the Raging Grannies- Yes to continuing working while being enough and sinking into both while nursing plantar fasciitis, torn rotator cuffs, arthritis, sore backs, crises that come, go, and those that persist; yes to representing all we’ve learned, cried and laughed through, learned, protested, uplifted, accepted, changed. I love the phrase: “…that pulls the whole tangle of me into the light.“ YES! The tangle of me. Isn’t that what we are doing? Untangling ourselves out in the open by exposing ourselves as artists, and in the process coming slowly towards silence and complete stillness. There will be infinite timelessness when we’re dead. Now is the time to be all of who we are, and keep combing those threads, tangling them up with life. Life will eventually untangle all of me and you and all of us, ants, birds, soldiers, presidents, movie stars, even the sun!
wow, such a great passionate cri de coeur! You are not going gently into that good night. no way. i hear you. the all of it. arthritis and relevance and hot stuff and granny...
"Isn’t that what we are doing? Untangling ourselves out in the open by exposing ourselves as artists, and in the process coming slowly towards silence and complete stillness. There will be infinite timelessness when we’re dead. "
I used to retort, during my YMOYL Doña Quixote years, "I'll sleep when I am dead." Yet, there is also the beauty of sleeping. of dreaming. of moving in the realms of the mysterious. both and all of the above
Beautifully written and great collection of quotes. I’m loving creating for fun rather than out of ambition…a great gift of age. I try not to pose inner nurturing versus external manifestation as a dichotomy but as a dance.
I've been doing succession puzzling for some time now. I've got over 40 years of work in the form of an online cache of stories about people who have stuck their necks out for the common good, and a K-12 curriculum based on those hundreds of stories, also online. So far, I haven't found placement that'll work so it may go on auto-pilot, with a tiny cache of bucks to keep the online fees paid. The Internet may be the key to saving everything, including several books I've written. Just in case, mind you, someone someday might stumble upon any of it. Unlikely. But it does make this Old Girl feel better about the work I continue to do at 91. Yeah, still writing my Letters to the World. And savoring every moment of grace and beauty I witness, so delighted to be here, taking it all in.
Beautifully written and filled with so much to ponder. Thank you.
Re reading and appreciating. My mantra for many years was I am enough. I have enough. I do enough. I almost believe it now.
I find peace in your eloquence.
I find wisdom in the weave of your prose.
I find insight in your thoughts.
I find inspiration in your example.
I find light in your eyes on our world.
Am I too enough?
Not sure…
Not yet!
Looking forward to our chat
Bill Yount
I remember when you talked about what is my legacy? I came to that point and asked that too because I held the question thinking it a wise compass. And now? I leave the physical saving the world or creating something amazing big project to those younger, I went back to graduate school at 62 best thing I ever did. I think education at this level at that age is savored much more than when young. So now the work I do is to support those creatives and activists in their work..being the Elder I guess. Yet I have things of my own, just because, that I follow, with curiosity and when lucky...awe and wonder. Remembering the child...not in the infantile way that society has designated to 'old folks' - it is the child that has always been there that can delight in the smallest thing.....and follow something that interests them in life...with a sense of play. And then too there are the things I want to get in order like small books of my projects to leave behind not just a bunch of papers in a box. And yes there are times too when I wonder if I'll make it. My biggest hope for aging? that we drop words culture has given those of age, like pinning us like bugs, to diminish us with words like elderly. Or all the shoulds of what you are supposed to do and be at a certain age. Nope. Not us. Growing up in 60's 70's of "we don't have to do it that way", should be retrieved for these years as well. I have come to like the word Elder, in the indigenous way, because we've all gathered a lot of knowledge and importantly wisdom...how can we share that in support? On good days I don't have a fear of dying I have a fear I won't have enough time to live.
I love the image of having presence like children at play now, following fascinations. Yes, sage and infant can be alike in the kind of attention they pay.
Beautiful. I have cherished each of those quotes .
yes, and so interesting that the advice they give is not all aligned. I think of another favorite quote:
Since everything is but an apparition, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out in laughter.
Longchenpa
snippets of wisdom like gyroscopes
One of my favorite!
Even before being in the kitchen this morning, I was stopped in the middle of the floor between the coffee sitting in the sink ready for the hot h2o and the kettle 5 feet away pulled in by each line, each quote, each response and thinking to myself opposing thoughts. Patti Smith at nearly 80, who is burning bright, calls what she does “work”, and the joy I believe it would be to let go of… what to call this urge in my being…to relieve myself creatively, stay relevant, have people see me, feel me, touch me, heal me, know me, hear me, understand me? And say to the entire world this that you experience witnessing me is what older looks like! Fuck you clichés about old ladies! Fuck you marketing definitions of me. Welcome slowness, thoughtfulness, carefulness, wisdom. I’m a grand mother. Grand human. I’m a privileged, fortunate, beloved; respected, admired, supported, loved; a friend to birds, children, strangers; an enemy of the status quo, slugs, and child harmers. Yes, to all this you write here! Yes, to the Raging Grannies- Yes to continuing working while being enough and sinking into both while nursing plantar fasciitis, torn rotator cuffs, arthritis, sore backs, crises that come, go, and those that persist; yes to representing all we’ve learned, cried and laughed through, learned, protested, uplifted, accepted, changed. I love the phrase: “…that pulls the whole tangle of me into the light.“ YES! The tangle of me. Isn’t that what we are doing? Untangling ourselves out in the open by exposing ourselves as artists, and in the process coming slowly towards silence and complete stillness. There will be infinite timelessness when we’re dead. Now is the time to be all of who we are, and keep combing those threads, tangling them up with life. Life will eventually untangle all of me and you and all of us, ants, birds, soldiers, presidents, movie stars, even the sun!
wow, such a great passionate cri de coeur! You are not going gently into that good night. no way. i hear you. the all of it. arthritis and relevance and hot stuff and granny...
"Isn’t that what we are doing? Untangling ourselves out in the open by exposing ourselves as artists, and in the process coming slowly towards silence and complete stillness. There will be infinite timelessness when we’re dead. "
I used to retort, during my YMOYL Doña Quixote years, "I'll sleep when I am dead." Yet, there is also the beauty of sleeping. of dreaming. of moving in the realms of the mysterious. both and all of the above
Beautifully written and great collection of quotes. I’m loving creating for fun rather than out of ambition…a great gift of age. I try not to pose inner nurturing versus external manifestation as a dichotomy but as a dance.
yes, true, it;s all a dance, garden, friends, writing, pondering, forest bathing and more.
Vicki!!!
Linda!!!