You have more
to offer
than an
un-grieved return
to your former,
younger life.

The world
needs wisdom, yours,
not winding back.
Do not return
to the ground
laying down
for the last time
as a stifled soul
stuck in an aged body.

Endure the dark night.
Heed the descending call.
Shed the coat of many colours.
Brighten the world
with your stained smile.

Make the mature choice
to mature well
as you tread lighter
across the earth
in your weathered
body-home
into the present day
as your present
and sober
eldering self.

‘What you have to offer’
David Tensen

To me, eldering is a practice in a persons life not defined by chronological age, but certainly held in it. There are forty-somethings whose eldering souls have been shaped in life’s fire, and whose very presence outshines 80-somethings who refused to surrender to any refining flame offered them – particularly the wealthy and hyper-religious who both often buy-out-of and bypass the necessary humiliation and discomfort on offer.

Eldering is a perpetual practice of surrender into the present-future, made real by not ignoring, circumnavigating, or returning to the past – but integrating and transcending that which was and is, for the sake of their soul’s formation, and the cosmos – knowing both are intertwined.

Like adulting and parenting, eldering has stages and phases, markers and milestones. Most wisdom traditions liken it to the autumn season, following life’s spring and summer. Among other things, it is a mutli-phase season of divesting, preparing, sharing and accepting. It is where the niche consolidation of one’s gifts and experiences are shaped into a bespoke vessel of Gods handywork.

The dilemma today is, most embracers of eldering are largely invisible and uncelebrated. And this is how it should remain. In the archetypal language of Jung and Campbell, they are now on the post-hero journey; meaning, they are no longer go-get-’em warriors or queens. Instead, they are likely to be gentle and wild sages, smiths, jesters, artisans, alchemists, or midwives of sorts. They are not shy, it’s just that the ego-soul is transmuting into an eccentric and decentric eco-soul.

To the eldering eco-soul, being seen by strangers matters less than being known by those who are known by them – both the human and more-than-human. The eldering eco-soul has settled into the complexity and gifted imperfections of their life. They demand little of themselves except to remain grounded to the earth, digging deeper roots into the soil, knowing that one day, all they have become will become compost for others to draw nourishment from.

– David Tensen

pic: by Brandon Green 2017.