How to Be an Elder

What makes an elder, a heartfelt spirit, a clear mind, a talented heart, one who is young while old and old while young, an activist for the Soul? Is it formulae, schemas, lexicons? It could be. But also, and often more so, I think it is very like the flowering of the trees in the forest, as we gather more years: we straggle and stride onward in our better learned ways to give out even more seeds for new life, and to blossom wildly in so doing for self and others … The old ones are yet traveling underground and overland toward us as we meet by the fireside one more time. La Vidente, the Seer. La Que Sabe, the Knowing Woman. La Levantadora, the Lifter of Curses—the Dangerous Old Woman in her many likenesses calls to you to ‘get down to business.