About the poem/painting Spirits Soar
With an ever increasing percentage of the elder population in the U.S., there is a growing interest in the experience of aging, with specialties in housing such as independent living, assisted living, retirement communities. The Scientific study of old age is the focus of Gerontology, as is the medical specialty of Gerontology. Senior Centers offer exercise programs adapted for older generations, and creative, artistic outlets are provided for in community education and college programs. The elder experience is increasingly recognized and valued.
The following poem and collage housing the oil pastel accompanying it portrays a positive attitude toward the physical challenges of the aging process with recognition of the potential for spiritual freedom that may be a grateful gift following the wearing down of our physical form. Adaptation, hard work, the highs and lows of life, like water washing away a rock, may result in the release of old, rigid expectations of beauty, strength, self-worth and success. The possibility exists of emotional, mental, spiritual release as a reward for having sustained, persisted through and survived decades of toil, disappointments, and losses. Despite tangling with the unpredictable, unforeseen, uninvited happenings in life, seniors yet may greet the unknown potential of their present and future with a renewed, freshened vision of possibility for themselves and the world around them.
These were my thoughts in 2008 re the poem/painting Spirits Soar.
I would love to hear from visitors of the website what your thoughts and feelings are in response to the poem and painting.
SPIRITS SOAR
With ease enough
aging is a breeze
that carries us
upward, outward, higher
as inner will
ignites our fire
Ablaze we yearn and burn
thru haze of body sore
transported and renewed
as
spirits soar!
2-03-08© Rosalie Denenfeld