Stretching at any age isn’t easy. The adage, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is couched in the truth of experience. So where does that leave me as a practitioner of the Work in my later years? How do I stretch when I am thoroughly entrenched and comfortable with my practice – even the difficult bits.
For me, my stretching started by making the effort to connect with two “non-Gurdjieff” groups in Asheville, NC. Both at the behest of my daughter-in-law whose suggestions I have come to value.
Stretching and Connecting
The Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath and Death, with Amy Wright Glenn, is one. Emberlight, Center for Conscious Living and Dying, is another. Aditi Sethi is the founder of Emberlight. I met both women when Amy Wright Glenn was holding her Institute’s annual retreat at the newly open Center for Conscious Living and Dying in the fall of 2022.
I was struggling to come to grips with the terrifying diagnosis of my daughter-in-law’s pancreatic cancer. Besides being the mother of two of my grandchildren, she had become a central connector for our family. In her mid-forties, she was a marathon runner, mountain biker, nurse, ultimate soccer mom, friend and councilor. I did not know how to act in the face of this vibrant person’s possible death.
In the event, Amy Wright Glenn’s institute’s weekend retreat in Asheville turned out to be a seminal growth experience for me. I met complete strangers with no idea what their program would entail. It was not within the familiar patterns of a Gurdjieff Work Weekend. I was dealing with profound grief and processing emotion is not my strong suit.
In terms of stretching, I felt my work was to open myself to whatever unfolded. To let go of judging and participate fully. In the end, the weekend was transformative. It took four blog posts to encompass it. 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
The Work of Stretching
Stretching, for me, has entailed leaving aside ingrained habits and assumptions. Opening to the possibility that what others have come to, even without a “teacher,” hold value. That I can learn from those younger than myself and from unexpected sources.
As I open to the unfamiliar, the uncomfortable, the more I hope to be able to meet the unknowable at the end of life with an open heart.
The ongoing work at Emberlight, Center for Conscious Living and Dying, has become a focus for me when I’m in Asheville. Their mission is to support those who come there to die as naturally as possible, rather than to seek personal “transformation.” Yet those who come to volunteer their services are supported too. Theirs is a boundless accepting. Dance, music, healing arts, theater improve, gardening, housekeeping, tending. A compilation of life-affirming activities, yet a central mission shared. Love emanates from the place and the people who come there. Together, everyone is learning to stretch up and out.
You just keep stretching Roberta. You are such an inspiration for how you open to, receive and integrate sources of spiritual nourishment and community empowerment.