My Sage-ing Journey

My Sage-ing Journey began one day in 1994 with a call from a good friend and fellow law librarian enthusiastically relating to me about a weekend in Denver at which a rabbi, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, spoke about his reaching 60.

He spoke of not finding mentors to guide him on his journey through old age. His initial solution was to go on a retreat at a Buddhist monastery during which time he looked deeply within and realized that he, himself, could guide others into thinking about the upward slope of the aging process.

He gathered friends and followers to discuss topics such as our accumulation of wisdom, patience, and tolerance as we age. More and more people from all walks of life gathered to hear his Sage-ing talks and soon, he was lecturing, first on both the East Coast and the West Coast, and then other cities, such as Denver where my friend lived. More details can be found in his book which he wrote with Ronald Miller, From Aging to Sage-ing: a profound new vision of growing older.

I called The Spiritual Eldering Institute in Philadelphia the next day to discover how I, too, could be involved and trained to pass on his inspiring message. Reb Zalman’s assistant asked me to write an essay on why I wanted to continue his message. I recall that I ended my essay with, “I want to be part of this so much that if you do not accept me for training, I will spread the message anyhow.” I guess they wanted me to lead with a knowledgeable background and they accepted me as an intern.

I began with a week [the first of three] at Omega Institute in upstate New York. At that point, Shaya Isenberg [of Blessed memory] and Bahira Sugarman were assisting him in training others to spread the first of many messages about the positive aspects of growing older. I now have 2 shelves of books relating to the subject. Reb Zalman always had an agenda, however, in his presentations, he would sometimes wander—telling wonderful side stories—but always returning to his point.

My training consisted of attending weekend workshops and submitting audiotapes of my own presentations to Shaya and Bahira for feedback and suggestions. Finally, in 1996, I was ready; however due to my mom’s illness, I postponed my certification until 1997. After a weekend retreat, Reb Zalman held a ceremony and presented me and a few others with our certificates of certified Sage-ing Leader. He gave each of us a $2.00 bill which I still have.

During the following years I served on the Coordinating Circle, and after SEI was dissolved in 2004, a few of us gathered by phone to create the Sage-ing Guild. Before Reb Zalman’s death in 2014, I worked with him to create a second edition of his book which included a new introduction and a closing chapter. At that point, I also took over the position of training coordinator for new interns. For thirteen years, I was the Editor of the SI quarterly newsletter, The Communicator. Gary Carlson and I also made certain that the word, Sage-ing, is registered in the US. I have remained active in the national organization, now called Sage-ing International—for good reason, as we now have active groups in England, South Africa, and Australia.

Now that I am much further into my own aging process, I have ceased to lead weekend workshops around the country. However, I continue to be involved in our national SI and have taught 8-week workshops sponsored by Lifetime Learning in Austin twice per year for the past eight years. Nothing delights me more, when facilitating, to see someone’s eyes light up with the realization that aging can be a wonderful growth time in their lives.