Day 103

Fun with Rosalie and Karen at Seaquake. We talked for two hours while having a meal and a pint of blonde ale. I enjoy them and our conversations go all over the place. Rosalie is co-authoring a book on aging using the hero’s journey as a theme. Lots of garden talk and plans. Today I’ll get errands done early as the tourists are already in town. Later my story people will come to share and respond. First the routine exercise and good nutrition.

My interest in elder circles started on July 4, 2016 at Hollie’s house when she had a barbecue party for Laurie, Rod, and Dona. They came from Idaho to complete a real estate deal for Dona’s house. Laurie and Hollie have been friends from the seventh grade and so I have known Dona that long. In 2010 Laurie asked Dona to come live with her and Rod and I helped her sort and delete her house full of stuff. The move was good. Rod was wonderful with her and built her a greenhouse, made a garden spot and folded her into their lives. It worked for a few years until Dona began to decline. By the time they come to Hollie’s party, they had a way of “parking” Dona in a chair and giving her glasses of wine. The next day Dona came to spend the afternoon with me as they did the legal work. She cried and told me how they took her along on their trips and “parked” her somewhere so she didn’t bother them.

Then I met Terra Bella from the Moon Tribe who said she was interested in elder circles and we talked about what that would look like. I made research trips to google and didn’t find a lot of help in how to get started until I found Noetic science institute that offered a course in Conscious Aging. Move ahead a couple of weeks to the day that Karen asked me to go to Klamath with her and Rosalie to stand with the Yurok tribe to support the Standing Rock tribe. On the way home I said who would be interested in elder circles and Rosalie said “Let’s do it.” I ordered the books from IONS and she did too. Together we put together our own version of the program as we didn’t like theirs. We started a group at the senior center that worked very well. Lots of time passed due to life and now we are prepared to begin another group with changes that we made from the previous experience. Rosalie has lots of facilitator experience and is the lead in our partnership. She is currently co-authoring a book on aging. Soon we hope to get another chance to share our program.