I really enjoyed teaching “Spirituality in the Second Half of Life” using the content of the books Falling Upward: Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr and Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to Finally Really Grow Up by James Hollis. But after I had taught the class several times, I realized that I didn’t want to just keep teaching the same course over and over. When I was a high school teacher, I constantly changed which courses I was teaching, and I always had multiple different classes each day. I wasn’t surprised that I had the same desire for variety after I retired.
And I also wasn’t satisfied only reaching about 15 participants in each class I taught. I wanted to share this “well-kept secret” about “the second half of life” with a lot more people. Therefore, in September of 2013, I decided to join the Vital Aging Network program called “Evolve.” In this program, we met once a month for a daylong workshop on how to create a community program. I wanted to start some ongoing monthly groups in which the participants could share their thoughts and feelings about being in the second half of life. But during my time in the Evolve program, I realized that I couldn’t do this by myself. I thought the realization was especially interesting, because this wasn’t the first time since I retired that the universe had given me this “you can’t do it alone” message.
I had been introduced to a nonprofit called The Transition Network (TTN) when another career counselor loaned me a book called Smart Women Don’t Retire, They Break Free, which had been written by several TTN members. Before I even finished the book, I knew I wanted to become a part of this national organization for women 50+ who are going through transitions. But I was crushed when I found out that we didn’t have a chapter in Minnesota.
I decided to take the next step, and I called the executive director and asked her what I would have to do to start a Twin Cities Chapter. I didn’t have to talk to her for long though, before I realized that I couldn’t start a chapter by myself. I would have to have a team. So I settled for becoming a national member.
But then at the end of 2013 while I was still in the Evolve program. I got an email from Kim Fisher. About a year after I had looked into starting a chapter, Kim had done the same. But at that point, TTN had a new executive director, and she gave Kim the contact information of several off the national members from Minnesota like me. So, she reached out to us. Three of us answered her call, and we had a team. And I’m so happy to say that we succeeded. In June of this year, the Minneapolis/St. Paul chapter of The Transition Network (TTN) became official. If you’re a 50+ woman, I hope you’ll check us out at “thetransitionnetwork.org.” We have a great group of women, we do a lot of fun things, and we’re growing.
However in 2015, synchronicity brought something even more exciting into my life I received an email asking if I would like to listen to Ron Pevny interview several people who have written books about “conscious aging” in an online program called “Transforming the Aging Journey.” This was the first time I had heard the term “conscious aging.” I had been excited to discover the concept of a “second half of life,” but I was even more excited to discover that people were writing about how we should live in this new life stage. I began reading everything I could about “conscious aging,” and I created a new OLLI class called “Conscious Aging: A New Paradigm for Aging” to begin in January off 2016.
Then shortly after I listened to Pevny’s series of interviews, I found out that he would be leading a 5‑day retreat at Ghost Ranch in October. Of course, I signed up and booked my flight. The first evening when I told Ron about what I was planning to teach, he said I was going to be teaching all the right things, but he also suggested that I should get certified by Sage-ing International. I had thought I would be creating my class all on my own, but at Ghost Ranch, I found out there is a whole community of people sharing the message of conscious aging, or “sage-ing” as they call it. In 2016–17, I received the training, and now I’m a Certified Sage-ing Leader (CSL).
The Sage-ing International community is an amazing community (“Sage-ing.org”), and I’m so happy that I no longer have to try “to do it alone.” And neither do you. I hope you will join us.
To contact me, call 651–399-9571 or email me karenw0214@gmail.com.
If you are new to “conscious aging” and “sage-ing,” I suggest you read my first two blog posts “A New Stage of Life.” The first four blog entries are meant to be an introduction. I also hope that those of you who continue to read this blog, will occasionally leave a “comment,” so that there will be a discussion.
