Like me, like Ashton Applewhite, like Jo Ann Jenkins, LARRY GRAY did not set out to be heart & soul committed to helping people live full lives to the end of their days. He basically stumbled into his commitment to nurturing elderhood & a respect of elders, to conscious eldering, through conscious living, through his love of nature.
Over his long years as a forester & a wildlife biologist way far north in the Artic, Larry has seen profound changes in both the land & seascapes. His interests turned to observing nature to studying the connection between our natural ecology & our natural self He became an ecopsychologist, a field that integrates nature with our human nature.
Larry's work has taken him far beyond observation, to having an awakening, a deep vision of what it is to grow older, a vision that intertwines our aging with nature, recognizing that as we age upward, we are provided with new opportunities for inner growth & deep personal fulfillment.
Small wonder that I consider Larry a member of my tribe - we both believe that "golden" years are meant to be just that, are meant to provide opportunities to grow into true elderhood. Larry & I are one in believing that it takes work & collaboration across the ages for an oldster to become a true elder, a force for good & a powerful agent of positive change & growth in our families, communities, nations & the world. That before our families, communities & nations can reconnect with the much-missed, much-needed elder wisdom that has been natural to every age until this current age-fearing epoch, our elderly have to respect, honor & reconnect with their inner elder.
We need to develop, through all ages, our own wisdom so we can, in time, become the wise elders we were created by All That Is to be, and to help the oldsters in our lives reconnect reaffirm celebrate their wise elder.
We need them, we need them now.
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