The Making of Elders with Stephen Jenkinson

Young people need and deserve real recognition of their worth and purpose in life, and a living example of enduring discernment and courage for the hard and often empty times that are upon us all. The esteem of parents and friends can only go so far: elders must bring the rest. Grandparents must be grand not only for their children’s children, but for all the young ones coming into the world now. Their status as grand people comes from having wrangled wisdom from experience, and from having become elders more than senior citizens. Grandparents must now be elders even – especially – when no one asks it of them.

This is a workshop for elders in the making. It is for anyone with a desire to be useful to those now inheriting an endangered and often dangerous world. It is for those who have an instinct and a desire to be an ancestor worth being claimed, worth coming from. We will learn something of the skills of grace in a graceless time, of mentorship and true teaching, of fierce and exemplary compassion. We will coax wisdom from old experience, and maybe we can replace retirement with esteemed elderhood.

For more on this short film, visit the director/producer Ian MacKenzie’s website.

About Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW

Grief is the willingness to be claimed by a story bigger than the one you wish for.

Spiritual activist, teacher, author, storyteller, ceremonialist and farmer. He is the founder of The Orphan Wisdom School where he teaches the mandatory arts of living deeply and dying well. Stephen is also the subject of Griefwalker, a National Film Board of Canada feature documentary film, a lyrical, poetic portrait of his work with dying people and shows him teaching the redemptive power of deep love for life, when life glimpses its end. His books and live-recorded teachings are available from his website at www.orphanwisdom.com.

details

Saturday May 25th, 2013
6:30pm – 9pm
Kushala Yoga at Suter Brook
$35 + tax