A Creative Approach to "Life After Work" Your Call to Adventure At the threshold of retirement, the questions become simple, and a little scary. What am I supposed to be doing now? What does it mean to be me, and how do I share that meaning with the world? These are the essential questions of growing older. They come to us all in those "passage" moments when our lives change, and we are most vulnerable. As our children grow and leave the nest. As we face retirement, and the end of "defining" ourselves by our titles, our salaries, our schedules. As friends and loved ones die, and we stare the inevitability of our own deaths squarely in the face. Sometimes whispered, sometimes screamed, these questions strip all that is superfluous from our lives and return us once again to the secret center of our beings, where we are alone. There, we seek answers. And a renewed vision of who we are, what we offer, and what we truly need at this magnificient and mysterious time in our lives. The Second Journey is an experience designed to guide older people to discover their very personal answers to these essential questions. And from those personal answers we construct maps to lead us into the future our hearts intend for us. It is a journey of the body, mind, and spirit, realigning themselves in power and beauty. It is the recovery of innocence and the playful spirit. It is a journey home. Recovering "Elderhood" For too long we have misunderstood what it means to be old in our culture. Too many older adults "retire" with not enough to do, no sense of purpose or direction to give vibrancy and focus and fulfillment to the last third of life. Predicated on the exhausted notion that, following a lifetime of hard work, the "golden years" should be peaceful, restful and carefree, we have removed from the old any role or responsibility to the larger community except that of a consumer. We have jettisoned old people to the periphery of our culture, to live only with each other in the isolation of retirement communities. It is an unholy waste of enormous wisdom, wit, and life experience, and it needs to stop. It is high time we "reimagined" the years after retirement, and restored to the old the adventure that is theirs and only theirs. The Second Journey is a call to that adventure. The Second Journey is the culmination of twenty five years of work with people facing significant "thresholds" in life (like adolescence and the passage into man- and womanhood, or midlife and the passage into maturity). At such moments, our lives must change, profoundly and forever. The way we understand ourselves, relate to others around us, use our time, set our priorities, and fulfill our role in society is very different after these "thresholds" than before, and we must rise to the challenge of aligning ourselves with our new opportunities. Ancient peoples realized long ago that, as individuals, we are neither wise nor courageous enough to make these passages without guidance, so they created formal rites of passage to help us through. We lack such formal occasions in our culture; too often, preparing for retirement amounts to some combination of financial planning and health checkups, missing entirely the inner transformation that must occur if we are to align ourselves well with the roles and responsibilities of being an elder. Simply put, we no longer know what it means to be old in this culture, and have created no place for elders in our midst. We have lost the natural and necessary "commerce" and dialog between ages that keeps societies both vital and grounded. Now that life expectancy permits us to live twenty, thirty and more years after retirement, the old are experiencing a widespread identity crisis the likes of which we have never seen before. To refer to a generation as "retired" is to define only by that which is no longer done; like calling an adolescent "no longer a child."Is there nothing to identify this time of life except the absence of work? Who are we supposed to be now? How are we supposed to act? Have we suddenly lost our place as citizens in the life of our communities? Currently there are no reliable roadmaps to steer our course through the unknowns encountered after sixty. So we will have to make them ourselves, for ourselves. The Second Journey is an invitation to draw this map.   How The Program Works We've set up The Second Journey as a series of weeklong experiential events, which we offer quarterly, following the rhythm of nature's seasons. You can join us for sessions here in Washington, or, for the more adventurous, these seasonal gatherings are also offered in breathtaking natural settings around the world, as unique vacation packages for those who desire to explore their "inner geography" as well as a new natural environment. (Click on "Workshops and Trainings" for the times and places of upcoming events). Wherever you find us, our path will be in keeping with the season. Our Winter sessions are times for deepening. Spring is a celebration of renewal and rebirth. Summer is the time of ripening and fruitfulness. Fall is the occasion for gathering and release. These themes from the cycle of nature help us understand and align ourselves with similar cycles within ourselves. Each seasonal gathering has four areas of activity, which we weave together into a tapestry of interlocking experiences: Innerwork - exploring our own lives and their meaning Bodywork - aligning ourselves with our changing physical natures Naturework - harmonizing ourselves with the rhythms of the earth and its seasons Elderwork - giving our gifts to family, community, and the next generations Each seasonal gathering invites participants to express themselves creatively by way of playful and thought provoking activities designed especially for elders. We will teach you how to create your own unique Life Map. We'll gather our favorite and most meaningful memories in books to be passed on to family and loved ones. We'll tap the hidden riches of our imaginations for answers to our deepest questions. We'll make masks, play games, design learning challenges just for you. And along the way, we'll discover old treasures and new directions for our lives that will lead us to a wholly new understanding of what it means to be an elder in our times. So if you find the traditional notion of "retirement" a little too constricting for your spirit, join us on The Second Journey. It will take you to the most wonderful place of all: home, to your heart.