Making A Difference As An Elder
Jane Goodall is one of my favorite and inspirational women elders of this day and age. She just turned 80 years old and is still traveling the world as a very powerful agent for positive change in the world. In this last year I have had the honor of connecting with some very powerful women who are not only older than me, but in some cases decades older.
As I near the age of 66 in July there are moments when I wonder if I have the stamina, energy and yes courage to not walk in the footsteps of these amazing women, but instead create my own path, and as Jane says above “decide what difference I want to make”! This question is most probably in many of your minds and hearts these days as our planet demands that we shift our consciousness and take actions from that place of deep listening and opening to new and authentic places within ourselves.
A couple of weeks ago now I was privileged to listen to Gladys McGarey, MD, MD(H) give an hour long talk here in Austin, Texas filled with stories from her life and demonstrating to me that age only inspires a greater longing to be taking action and serving from that higher purpose that we came in with. Dr. Gladys as she likes to be called was brought up in the Himalayas by American parents and climbed up 1000 feet everyday (from 6,000 to 7,000 feet) after school to be embraced by her amah and taken into her shawl where she was comforted after a challenging day at school (she was severely dyslexic).
Gladys McGarey, MD, MD(H), age 93
From this start Dr. Gladys became the “Mother of Holistic Medicine” here in the United States and now has The Foundation for Living Medicine. The new Living Medicine model recognizes the wholeness of life rather than the absence of disease. Dr. Gladys states that life and love are the aspects that really do the healing. She is still seeing patients and is the director of The Foundation for Living Medicine. Dr. Gladys is 93 years old!!
As I watched her that evening speak of the concerns that she is most passionate about I saw a vital, alive, vibrant, intelligent, beautiful woman standing erect in her flowing clothing from India and not once taking a break in an entire hour of speaking. The inspiration for me came not from her words, which were very wise indeed, but from her presence!
It is women like Dr. Gladys, Jane Goodall, Jean Houston, Barbara Marx Hubbard (whom I was privileged to study with for 6 months last year), Lynn Twist, elder women in political, economic, creative and social change roles and the thousands of global “grandmothers” that are doing such important service in the world – who have found what making a difference is in their own unique ways.
There is an inquiry that I use in my breathing workshops often. It asks, “if you were to live your life as you breathed, how would you want to be breathing?” My answer of course is fully, naturally and authentically….which can be the foundation for every thought, word, movement, choice and action we take impacting the world around us.
What kind of difference do you want to make?
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Gaye Abbott, RYT assists individuals to drop the layers that cover the natural innate blueprint we came in with and reveal, through a combination of evolutionary energy work, Jin Shin Jyutsu, Reiki and breath re-patterning, the larger purpose and co-creative expression that we are here for.
For those interested in receiving private sessions please contact Gaye at: JoyfulGaye@NaturalPassages.com. Travel to your location in the U.S. or globally is available. Please inquire. Skype: gaye.abbott
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