SI and I – My Story

In 1996, while attending a men’s conference in New Mexico, a workshop leader encouraged me to read a newly published book about growing older, “From Age-ing to Sage-ing.”  As a 55-year-old man contemplating early retirement and wondering about my next steps, I enthusiastically accepted his suggestion and found real wisdom in the book. My wife Charlotte, a Jungian Psychoanalyst in private practice, was also very interested in the second half of life issues that the author wrote about. The next year Charlotte and I traveled to Colorado to attend a workshop on Sage-ing given by Zalman Schachter Shalomi, the author of the book and founder of the Spiritual Eldering Institute (SEI). What an amazing experience! By 2000, Charlotte and I had completed the SEI training program and were newly minted Certified Sage-ing Leaders (CSLs).  That was the beginning of a two-decades-plus connection with Sage-ing that has profoundly changed both of our lives and deepened our relationship with each other.

As enthusiastic new facilitators of the Sage-ing message, Charlotte and I gave many workshops and lectures in New Mexico and encouraged others to become involved in this new work. In 2004, we attended a weekend conference of around 90 CSLs in Loveland, CO, where Reb Zalman encouraged us to start our own organization, a “Guild” of Sage-ing Leaders, to facilitate communications among ourselves. By the end of the weekend, a small group of us had created the outlines of a new organization, the Sage-ing Guild, which was wholeheartedly approved by the other CSLs present. Within a year, SEI would cease to exist, leaving the Sage-ing Guild as the inheritor of Reb Zalman’s hopes and dreams for activities supporting elders around the world.  That began a years-long journey of creating a robust organization to not only facilitate communications among us but to share the encouraging message of Sage-ing with the world, with a web presence, a training program and a lively program of workshops, lectures, Wisdom Circles, and conferences.  Following a name change a decade or so ago to Sage-ing International, we are now an organization counting well over 3000 enthusiastic members around the world.

Looking back, Charlotte and I have both been involved in SI over the past two decades, sometimes working together and sometimes individually. I have chaired the organization twice, served for several years as Treasurer, been a Training Faculty member and chaired numerous committees along the way. Charlotte has been a mentor for the training program for many years and has loved her mentoring relationships, which have enriched her life enormously! We continue to present Sage-ing programs together and have been involved in the development of several in-person and virtual Wisdom Circles and the design of several core SI programs, including “Awakening the Sage Within” and “No Regrets: Living Well and Dying Well.”  It has been wonderful for both of us to share this work and to support each other along the way. I truly believe we would not have grown into our elder years as joyfully and productively without this shared partnership and love of the Sage-ing work. 

If you have an opportunity to share your Sage-ing work with a significant other, embrace it.  We are confident it will provide a great benefit to your relationship as well as to the Sage-ing community.