Rise of the Elder Class

Because the younger have more knowledge in our wired world we are seeing an ancient template for wisdom resurge.

It can be seen when ‘young earth mama’ Greta Thunberg is begging adults to be elders. To have more than just harvested money and ridden the emotional roller coaster of society’s whims.

Thunberg is highlighting that adults have a distinct role in using wisdom from their life experience to be responsible. Some of us are responsible in our smaller communities like marriage, family, industry, and that internal community of inner lives (think of the soul and spirit). Other’s lack of respondability will reveal them to be a toxic disaster even at the personal level.

Nowadays we are seeing that what we want at the community level has wide and long lasting impact on a much larger scale. Adults need to be proactive in the larger community because it seems to the planet Earth and the current youth that we don’t care.

To some extent that is true. It might be explained by seeking the missing education. The education of a journey of development whether that be human or planetary. We are designed as humans to want a spiritualized life yet we end up with monetized lives as are inspiration of success.

The wisdom of a vision quest or way of the ancients is missing. And leaves us wanting.

Leaves our soul longing.

Perception is a residue of higher connection. It’s like a second education. In cultural terms this urge to keep learning in each different stage of life gets labeled and monetized as ‘Self Help’. With a plethora of far fetched ideas for personal development from instant gurus combined with easy to publish e-books the natural urge to grow has become a joke. Yet it is exactly Self Help that will attract the perception that Ms. Thunberg expects.

Help yourself to books that have bits of wisdom hidden in the stories, quotes, photos, poems. Help yourself to a retreat where you meet your pathway to eldership. Help yourself to the well-being and peace that nature effuses and where perception abounds.

It’s natural for children and adults to have elders in their lives. It’s not a given that you or I do the work to rise into elderness. I’m not about to tell Ms. Thunberg I’m not going to apply myself. Are you?

Rise up old man!

Be the elder you were born to be. Offer the next generation guidance and resilience. Hope and finesse.

1 Minute Wilderness- Ducks

Breathe, listen …

re-Purpose

A former manager once dropped into my office and quickly put a gift bag between the wall and my computer terminal. He timed it well so I was busy with someone so he just smiled, nodded and left. It was mid December and so he was receiving lots of Christmas gifts from every direction. I didn’t expect anything from him and I am pretty sure he had no intention of getting me anything. For me the company wasn’t a place I belonged and for him I didn’t solve his problems with his bosses. And then appeared a bottle of scotch in my office in a gift bag lacking the colourful tissue paper. I can’t remember the last time I drank scotch. Which means that I either binge drink it or never drink it. I had never talked about scotch at work. So obviously he was regifting the bottle.

Regifting is a useful practice. Re-gifting means more people get gifts which means more happy people and less consumerism and waste of wrapping paper. It’s logical and heartwarming. It works. I drank the scotch.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Regifting and repurposing could both be seen as changing the direction of the same thing. You can repurpose tires into jewelry, plastic into a fleece pullover, a boyfriend into a husband, an old silver fork into a bracelet, a pop bottle into a flower pot, a stump into a stool and on and on.

Life stages thrust this reality of ‘the new you’ unto us. Our curious child repurposes into a rebellious youth into the sceptical young adult into that focused adult who grows into an elderly sage. In the beautifully painful transition known as death, the sage repurposes into spirit.

Photo by Nourdine Diouane on Unsplash

There is some art to repurposing. Simply said – don’t change too much. Change as much as you have to while staying loyal to what you know is real. What is true about you is the eternal you. This is what anchors the local you through the bumpy transition from one stage to the next. Your eternal you, your higher self, loves to elevate on the journey your soul is opening up for you.

10 Things a young man needs to to hear from a man.

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10 things a young man needs to to hear from a man. Always Be growing. Be curious about how to combine these 10 things to make you a generator of confidence and humility.

You are a vibrant power. This a seed of wisdom that should bother a young man. To grasp how it applies to him and be able to spot it in others. The trajectory of a man is seen in his ability to grow due the compounding interest of belief and accomplishment. Many things will try to deviate a man from that trajectory. So what is stronger ? Deviation or belief?
Do the work to be emotionally agile not fragile. This one is so important to teach by example. The work can be analogous to juggling. If you focus on one ball then all of them will fall. To take it up a level you use your peripheral vision to manage the task at hand. What is being asked is to be able to have long term vision while still managing the present.
Define strength: mentally, physically, emotionally – as a man; find out what it is for a woman. What is your formula for strength in each case: Emotional Strength = _________ + ____________ Use your strengths to highlight them in others.
Decide what you want the residue of your decision making to be – belief, respect…
Love yourself. This will sound cheesy to a young person because their identity branding takes importance over most things. Still, this simple yet deep concept has many expressions into our lives. All of them are springboards for growing. Starting with your Ego. Elevate it to Your Best Ego; Accompanying your Soul we develop our participation in the Higher Soul. Then there can be talk of the universal spirit…
Always be generating. Generate your own reason for what you’re doing. This makes you the author of your own story so you aren’t at the mercy of someone else’s laziness. Be clean.
Connect with nature: breathe/5 senses, rejuvenate, exercise, ground, appreciate, marvel. Make nature your man cave. Use the peace in the moment and the power of nature to visualize you: healthy, successful, happy, spontaneous, loved, loving, agile (see #2), …
Frame your journey to make sense of how to manage the competing interests for your attention. Have a way to process what happens to you in various stages of life. This really helps when dealing with stress to understand what is impacting us so we can take responsibility for it. This is a proactive measure to rise above violence against women.
Understand how to understand women. If you don’t know how to access your abilities and insist on dwelling in the lower levels of energy you will end up ignoring what she asks you to do. At the maintenance level you can do what she asks you to do. At the perception level you can ask yourself what she would want and do it.
Be of service. Find people who don’t count the cost. Read the books they read.
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