{"id":1626,"date":"2011-10-24T21:06:23","date_gmt":"2011-10-25T01:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/?p=1626"},"modified":"2011-10-24T21:06:23","modified_gmt":"2011-10-25T01:06:23","slug":"entering-eldering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/10\/entering-eldering.html","title":{"rendered":"Entering Eldering"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pureclipart.com\/clipart\/people16.gif\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Over the weekend, I found myself sitting in a circle of friends; many that I have known for years and one I was just meeting for the first time. What we had in common was a love of life, a keen interest in learning and expanding our horizons and abiding connection with spirituality. Another thread was that we were all over 50 and therefore were part of\u00a0what they call an Elder&#8217;s Circle. \u00a0Since I turned 53 a week ago, it was no big deal to recognize that I am now a seasoned woman; a term I love, by the way. Aging looks and feels nothing like I anticipated and yet, I had not considered that I am now an elder with wisdom to share as a result of having clocked more than half a century on the planet.\u00a0 I am noticing a few changes in my ability to retain information and find just the right word; which can be frustrating at times as a born communicator. My steel trap memory seems to be wearing a bit thin around the edges and I accomodate by injecting humor. I used to strictly say I was having a &#8216;middle aged moment&#8217;, but that seems to reinforce the belief that I have to have memory lapses. Instead, I now say that I am having a &#8216;wise woman moment&#8217;, since the older we get, the wiser we grow. I also tell folks that the mental hard drive is getting full.\u00a0 The truth is, I have so much to remember that the un-neccesary things get pushed to the background. Often times when I am presenting, people have asked me to repeat what I just said and sometimes, I just can&#8217;t, since the info often comes through me and not from me in a channeled\/downloaded from Source kinda way.<\/p>\n<p>I do know, that in my 50&#8217;s I have far more get up and go than I had in previous decades. I seem to require less sleep, which is a good thing, since it has been at a premium lately. \u00a0I have enlivened passion for life, zest for taking it all in AND the discernment to know what is good for me and what quite simply, does not serve. I am grateful for the\u00a0energetic resources to live fully.I have earned every laugh\u00a0line and grey hair, which I have decided to let go natural&#8230;Jamie Lee Curtis and Emmy Lou Harris wear it well, so I suppose I can too.\u00a0 \u00a0I have gleaned insight into what makes me tick and what makes the world go &#8217;round. I have an ever-expanding circle of \u00a0loved ones. I am more comfortable in my own skin and take better care of myself every which way around than I did in my 30&#8217;s and 40&#8217;s. I take &#8217;emotional bungee jumping&#8217;\u00a0 risks&#8230;not the least bit interested in the real thing, thank you very much. I say yes to what I want and no to what I don&#8217;t want. I have connected my wish bone with my back bone and stand up for what I believe in. I ask for what I desire without stuttering most of the time. I can gaze backward at accomplishments with a sense of appreciation that I have a solid track record. I can envision forward into the next decade and know that it will be magnificent.<\/p>\n<p>I have wonderful role models for successful aging, including my friend and mentor, Yvonne Kaye, who I mentioned in yesterday&#8217;s blog entry. My parents who lived to their middle 80&#8217;s, were shining examples of activity and volunteerism into the 8th decade of their lives. My mom taught a senior stretch class called Stretching with Selma and my dad worked in a gym until a few years before he died. He too volunteered at their town center, once playing Santa Claus&#8230;likely the only one in their history named Moish who had to stuff the Santa suit with a pillow, because he was so trim.\u00a0 My Aunt Edith lived to be 103 and was independent into her 90&#8217;s until she fell, broke her hip and spent the remainder of her years cared for in\u00a0a nursing home. In her 60&#8217;s, she took up painting and I have a few of her pieces here in my home as a reminder that creativity knows no age limit.<\/p>\n<p>My friend Jim Donovan wrote a book called <strong><em>Don&#8217;t Let An Old Person Move Into Your Body<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jimdonovan.com\">www.jimdonovan.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>There is a wonderful article in Yoga International Magazine about the subject of graceful aging in the face of physical challenge by Deborah Willoughby<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.himalayaninstitute.org\/yoga-international-magazine\/inspiration-articles\/aging-gracefully\/\">www.himalayaninstitute.org\/yoga-international-magazine\/inspiration-articles\/aging-gracefully\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Rabbi Zalman Schacter Shalomi wrote a book entitled <strong><em>From Aging to Saging<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rzlp.org\">www.rzlp.org<\/a> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of my favorite songs about aging<em> <strong>You&#8217;re Aging Well<\/strong> <\/em>by Dar Williams and Joan Baez\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/1uIAVpM-D_A\">http:\/\/youtu.be\/1uIAVpM-D_A<\/a><\/p>\n<p>And one more for the road&#8230;.The Traveling Wilburys <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/cwqhdRs4jyA\">http:\/\/youtu.be\/cwqhdRs4jyA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>May we all age well~<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Over the weekend, I found myself sitting in a circle of friends; many that I have known for years and one I was just meeting for the first time. What we had in common was a love of life, a keen interest in learning and expanding our horizons and abiding connection with spirituality.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":233,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,1,13,19,21,3,4,54,38],"tags":[4887,983,980,982,984,979,532,981,4889],"class_list":["post-1626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-affirmations","category-attracting-what-you-desire","category-blissfull-thinking","category-empowerment","category-energy","category-gratitude","category-inspiration","category-interfaith","category-transformation","tag-dar-williams","tag-deborah-willoughby","tag-from-aging-to-saging","tag-jim-donovan-dont-let-an-old-person-move-into-your-body","tag-joan-baez","tag-rabbi-zalman-schacter-shalomi","tag-the-traveling-wilburys","tag-yoga-international-magazine","tag-youre-aging-well"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Entering Eldering - The Bliss Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/10\/entering-eldering.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Entering Eldering - The Bliss Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Over the weekend, I found myself sitting in a circle of friends; many that I have known for years and one I was just meeting for the first time. What we had in common was a love of life, a keen interest in learning and expanding our horizons and abiding connection with spirituality.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/10\/entering-eldering.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bliss Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/snuggleyoga\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-25T01:06:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.pureclipart.com\/clipart\/people16.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EdieWeinstein1\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Entering Eldering - The Bliss Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/10\/entering-eldering.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Entering Eldering - The Bliss Blog","og_description":"&nbsp; \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Over the weekend, I found myself sitting in a circle of friends; many that I have known for years and one I was just meeting for the first time. What we had in common was a love of life, a keen interest in learning and expanding our horizons and abiding connection with spirituality.&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/10\/entering-eldering.html","og_site_name":"The Bliss Blog","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/snuggleyoga","article_published_time":"2011-10-25T01:06:23+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.pureclipart.com\/clipart\/people16.gif"}],"author":"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@EdieWeinstein1","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/10\/entering-eldering.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/10\/entering-eldering.html","name":"Entering Eldering - The Bliss Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/10\/entering-eldering.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/10\/entering-eldering.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.pureclipart.com\/clipart\/people16.gif","datePublished":"2011-10-25T01:06:23+00:00","dateModified":"2011-10-25T01:06:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#\/schema\/person\/edcd643a643a9ca91adb1e8f9e177386"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/10\/entering-eldering.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/10\/entering-eldering.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/10\/entering-eldering.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.pureclipart.com\/clipart\/people16.gif","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.pureclipart.com\/clipart\/people16.gif"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/10\/entering-eldering.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Entering Eldering"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/","name":"The Bliss Blog","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Edie Weinstein","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#\/schema\/person\/edcd643a643a9ca91adb1e8f9e177386","name":"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/0d6\/0d6cd7619da51a9a40cc705280e88f9cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/0d6\/0d6cd7619da51a9a40cc705280e88f9cx96.jpg","caption":"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW"},"description":"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW is a colorfully creative journalist, inspiring transformational speaker, licensed social worker, interfaith minister, editor, radio host, BLISS coach, event producer, Cosmic Concierge, the author of The Bliss Mistress Guide To Transforming The Ordinary Into The Extraordinary and co-author of Embraced By the Divine: The Emerging Woman\u2019s Gateway to Power, Passion and Purpose. She has also contributed to several anthologies and personal growth books. Edie has interviewed such notables as Ram Dass, Wayne Dyer, Debbie Ford, don Miguel Ruiz, don Miguel Ruiz, Jr. Marianne Williamson, Grover Washington, Jr. Noah Levine, Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Weaver, Ben and Jerry and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She calls herself an Opti-mystic who sees the world through the eyes of possibility. 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