Welcome to Wise Elder

I love the concept of Wise Elder; not because I think I am one, but because I aspire to be one. Perhaps no coincidence that ”Aspiring Wise Elder” has the acronym “AWE”, just as Wise Elder is “WE”. I know that WE are so much more than our bodies; that WE are great beings. It saddens me to hear people my age or younger talk about their upset with seeing themselves age. My intention here is to inspire and encourage us to relentlessly pursue wisdom, knowing that our bodies are perhaps just a metaphor for who we are. It is my commitment that we celebrate the quest to become wiser with age. A wise person said that our outsides are just wrapping paper and the true gifts are inside. If anyone knows the exact quote and who said it, I would love to give credit where credit is due.

One of the great blessings of my life is the abundance of dear friends, many of whom are “elders” who are so inspiring and who have taught me so much. I shall share them with you as a tribute to who they are, together with my view of what I find so inspirational. The older I get, the more I see that some of our learning is from books, some from each other, and some “the hard way”. It seems to me that the easiest and gentlest way of learning is from each other. Just think how many lifetimes it would take to learn everything if we had to do it all by ourselves.

When I was a toddler in Eugene, Oregon in the 1950s I loved to dance. I had an adorable pink satin bathing suit that I would wear as I would dance around the living room and up on the couch. Kind of like “Dancing with Life”. Totally uninhibited and in the joy of the moment. Now that I am much older, I realize that this is a wise way to live life now.

The Wise Elders in my life share a love of life and a love of friends and family.They always make time for others in the present moment. There are so many Wise Elders in my world that for now I am using age 80 as a “beginning point” . As I reflect on what they have in common, I am grateful that they all are “open hearted” friends…..often sharing their hopes, dreams and sometimes their fears. I have felt very trusted. Many have talked with me about death and dying, and the afterlife; topics that are often difficult to discuss with family. I have grown to believe that those we have loved and lost become angels, surrounding us with love and light when they no longer have a physical body. “Getting one’s wings” is not necessarily a sad thing to me and I believe those wings are a sign that we’ve learned what we came here to learn.

I hope you enjoy reading about my Wise Elders and that you find them as inspirational and wise as I do.

Using this site

This website is updated often with new stories in several categories. You can view all stories in a particular category by selecting that category from the menu at the top of each page, or by selecting the category at the bottom (footer) of each page. All stories can also be viewed by selecting a month from the archives in the footer section.

All Inspirational Wise Elders stories can be found here: http://wiseelder.com/category/inspirational-wise-elders/

All Blessings of Dementia stories can be found here: http://wiseelder.com/category/blessings-of-dementia/

All Travels with Evie stories can be found here: http://wiseelder.com/category/travels-with-evie/

All Photo Galleries can be found here: http://wiseelder.com/category/photo-gallery/