As I go about the world, mostly on foot, I find myself more and more astounded by the extreme differential between my 82-year-old vigor and the relative lethargy of others, also obviously elderly. Not just wrinkled like me, but most appear frail, and shuffle along slowly, stiffly, as if everything hurts. Plus, so many appear sad, lonely. They haven’t, like me, switched from concern for “self-image” to living from the inside out.
When we live from the inside out, we are integrated. Logical left brain with oceanic right brain, right brain to heart. When both sides of the brain are integrated, the heart is open and the soul shines through.
The soul shines through the eyes; and when the soul shines through the eyes, it magnetizes other souls, through their eyes. The result? On daily errands I share an endless, near silent, joyful dance of connection, communion, union.
I assume that the obvious differential between me and my elderly cohorts is mostly due to the fact that my way of life differs so profoundly from theirs. First of all, I do not live alone, but with others; in fact, this year, with two very young, intense, and wonderful women. My home is connected to two others, also with intergenerational occupants, in Green Acres Permaculture Village. We not only get along, we help each other out when needed, enjoy regular bi-weekly community dinners open to neighbors and friends, work the land, share tasks, dream and accomplish common goals.
Likewise, the eating habits I have refined over a lifetime likely differ profoundly from most others my age. Whole foods, home cooked, no seed oils, high protein, low carb, gluten-free, no sugar. Plus eight different supplements I began during the covid con, to rev up my immune system and keep it there. Plus, as of six months ago, intermittent fasting, 18/6. And, just two days ago, I ordered a “weighted vest”!
Then there’s my long-term physical exercise routine: three to four miles a day fast walk, plus yoga, chi kung tai chi. Two hours altogether, of what I call “physical culture.”
Not surprisingly, I am very much the one in charge of my own health. No doctors, no drugs, no medical appointments, no blood tests, nada. Exceptions made if I break a bone, which happened twice in the past 12 years: both wrists; one falling on black ice, the other stumbling on a hidden root on a forest path. (Usually, I stumble, but don’t fall; long-term chi kung renders every cell alive and interconnected.)
I have long been aware that the body is the temple of the soul; and that I must maintain the body in prime condition for as long as possible, if I wish to continue to share the mental/emotional/spiritual harvest I have gleaned from more than eight decades of living fully, and well, including outrageous risks and adventures, all the while continuously processing my own shadow stuff as it emerges from the murky depths. The result: I don’t just “get older”; I grow older.
However, and here’s where I differ profoundly from many who are similarly focused on the body to the point of near-obsession. Namely: I do not fear Death. In fact, I welcome Death, as the parting gift to a long life well lived.
So though I am very focused on the body, for without its well-being I cannot be of service to others, my values, attitudes and assumptions are wildly different from the so many many others who are, more and more, not just focused on, but actually identified with this mortal coil and terrified of dying and Death! So much they are actually determined to avoid Death and achieve immortality, transform into gods!
Come on, folks. Death is but entrance to larger life!
Don’t try to limit your mysterious open-sourced aliveness
to this 3D material realm!
Forget about cleverly mapping, synthesizing, digitizing;
why would you want to transmogrify
into a transhumanist bot?
that “lives” forever?
Huh? You call that living?
Joe Allen spells it out and sums it up quite nicely, not to mention precisely.
Healthy Body, Sick Soul
