The struggle between self-interest and care lives in each heart.
We are asked to work these choices every day,
and the life of relationship, family, and community
depend on what we choose. 
~ Mark Nepo

For a Complete Summary of previous Writing, Aging & Spirit Blogs:

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Intergenerational Card-Making

Our Hamilton Aging Together writing group has developed materials for facilitating intergenerational groups to make greeting cards for the old and the young.  Two sessions will take place at Hamilton Public Library in the coming year: Saturday, December 1, at Central Library and March 15, 2019 (March Break) at Ancaster Library. Mark your calendars. 

See Hamilton Aging in Community for latest Blogs and Events

Resilient Aging in Community

Social and Psychological Factors Important in Housing Choices for Seniors

College Students Moonlight as Grandkids  

Ageism: The one prejudice we aren’t afraid to flaunt

Photographs of Resilient Aging

Never Too Old (Hamilton Council on Aging)

Wrinkles in Time

Grandchildren Pay Tribute to Grandparents

Writing Exercise

Make a greeting card for an older person using a quotation about positive aging or a memory of engaging with that person. Add a photograph or draw an image; Add a blessing for that person, such as “May you live all the days of your life feeling the love of family and friends.”

Then make another greeting card for a young person following the same guidelines.

The End of Old Age: Living a Longer, More Purposeful Life by [Agronin, Marc E.]

Book Review

The End of Old Age: Living a Longer, More Purposeful Life.
Marc E. Agronin: DaCapo Lifelong Books/Hachette Group, 2018.

Dr. Marc Agronin (author of How We Age) is a geriatric psychiatrist, deeply influenced at the beginning of his career by Erik Erikson in his 90s and by Gene Cohen (Founder of the National Center for Creative Aging).  With years of serving older adults from many ethnic groups in Miami Florida, he argues for new definitions of Aging emphasizing the potential for growth all through life, especially in the latter years.

The title “End of Old Age” is misleading – Agronin refers to “End of old meanings of Old Age”.  This book provides a good starting point for groups of older adults (or middle agers) to talk about the model and strategies for resilient aging – especially the five dimensions of wisdom which we can develop through life to prepare for a meaning-filled old age.  I would suggest participants take time to write about Age Points in their lives where they had the opportunity to build wisdom – reflection on these experiences in later life can further strengthen resilience by learning from failures and losses as well as good coping.  We can build reserves for purposeful aging by creating and sharing charts for ourselves about how we can build skills necessary for our savant, sage, curator, creator, and seer components of wisdom.

As we age, we gain wisdom as a multifaceted form of mental currency
that we store away year by year as a critical reserve, ready to yield its  dividends. Our age-enhanced resilience gets us through adversity, proves our value to ourself and others, and enables us to discover our true purpose in life.

 We can respond to age-related changes by taking the best of our past and renewing it, or by letting go of certain parts and reinventing ourselves. These changes are led by our creative spirit, which grows and develops with age and enables us to realize a bursting, blooming age culture.

For the complete book review, click here: Ryan18-AgroninEndofOldAge

With this shadow photo,

I bid you adieu

  Ellen