We live in the age of information- inundated daily with data, news, and seemingly competing perspectives. The clamor creates a cacophony which can be felt internally as well as clearly observed in the collective. This flow of information can be experienced as a tidal wave, threatening to overwhelm or flood the channels for action. To make matters more challenging, as cultural theorist Byung Chul Han notes- information is “Janus-faced– it simultaneously produces certainty and uncertainty.” How can we respond to such an onslaught of illuminating but destabilizing input?

As Carl Jung has always emphasized, a reliable first step involves cultivating self-awareness. Through ongoing, deep introspection and discourse with the wisdom of those around us, we identify our distinct nature. As James Hollis advised us, we need to “access our inner compass, the promptings of the psyche that help us find our way through the complex thickets of choice.” The art of composing contour, discerning boundaries, and carving out the path ahead is at once personal and relational. It aligns us in the midst of disorienting circumstances. Immersed in this active process, we uncover our own creative fingerprints, the unique offering which we contribute to the evolving design. Supported by our community- through clumsy but genuine reciprocity and mutual care, we are delivered into uncharted and renewing territory.

One established practice of collaborative self reflection is the ‘life review’. Hospice professionals and death-tenders have long documented the transformation and healing which comes from imagining our personal narratives and mythos in a structured way. Therapeutic professionals, and the clients they serve, have realized this process is also constructive before end-of-life– for caregivers, those at midlife transitions, or anyone aiming to approach their own story intentionally. A recent piece from The New York Times, A ‘Life Review’ Can Be Powerful, At Any Age, explores this expansion and informed the creation of our Summer Lunch & Learn offering, “Reimagining Your Story Through the Eyes of Wisdom”. This introductory hour is followed by an opportunity for deeper, collaborative practice through a workshop series. The collective dreaming and practice here invites us into the empowering experience of being an authority in imagining our own life stories.

Other Summer programming with The Community for Conscious Aging includes delving into Drew Leder’s ‘Chessboard of Healing’, which highlights the strengths and shadows of various coping strategies that keep us afloat as we navigate troubled waters. A Lunch and Learn explores identity and resilience for those making the midlife transition– especially those in the “sandwich generation” who practice the precarious balancing act of caregiving for elders while also parenting and, somehow, trying to self-actualize. A book study engages the question- how do we imagine ourselves beyond the roles we’ve been prescribed, or adopted out of necessity, so that we can more deeply experience soulfulness? And a virtual workshop approaches the timely issue of growing older alongside the digital age.



When we find ourselves facing daunting thresholds or deluges of information which threaten to blot out guiding light, I’m reminded of the voice of Joseph Campbell, “The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation. When everything is lost, and all seems darkness, then comes the new life and all that is needed.” The Community for Conscious Aging welcomes your voice to our space for envisioning, and experiencing, relational clarity and wholeness.