The Ripening Room

Aging is still controversial. There are those who think it is a kind of natural disaster, the bitter broken end of the story. There is a growing minority who believe that old age holds the key to personal uniqueness and fulfillment. At the moment, amongst other big changes, the traditional view of the latter part of life is undergoing a metamorphosis. The old is becoming new.   

This changing of the fall of Life, is only welcome in some corners. It’s scary. Life has more to offer. It also asks more of us.  The newness arising, is a mixed blessing.  Longer, more complex lives, with less functional bodies, and greater losses, more death of loved ones— all add-up to a challenge like no other. Some would say it is these hardships, that make old age such an undesirable part of life.

 

Others, including this author, see these hardships, as the gifts of later life. They are a part of an initiatory ordeal, that quickens life, and gives it a miraculous magical quality, dignifying and connecting we humans to the processes of Creation. It is when our bodies breakdown, that our spirits become more available to us. There is an awakening, that becomes available as life ripens us. Falling becomes flying. Wrinkles, cellulite, and scars become the signs of a new phase.

 

This transition is handicapped by looking bad, appearing as a kind of demise, a failure to thrive. But that is only what’s happening on the outside. It is what is most visible. Miraculously, something else is happening on the inside. Unseen, and unrecognized, an immaterial capacity is forming. Sensitized by all the losses, an internal being is growing — an invisible wonder is ripening.   Aging is a gateway— a portal into another form of being human—another adaptation to existence.

 

We all know we are living in precarious times. No one knows what is going to happen. Your fantasy is as likely as mine. Still, there is something happening within we humans. I don’t think it has been adequately accounted for. I may not know exactly what it is, but I have noticed that the overall theme of aging seems to be that the old gray mare “ain’t what she used to be.” I think that is true, and I’m offering a new story about what that may mean.

 

Ripening, in my opinion, is happening. I think it is built into us, like a homing instinct, an integrative drive, a natural tendency towards wholeness. Ordeals, hardships, and dilemmas, ripen us, maturing our nature, and growing each of us into our unique selves. All of that development, is part of the ever-expanding Universe, guaranteeing diversity, and making sure that evolution always has something new to create with.

 

The Ripening Room, a new development — is a prayer — designed to emulate and support life. It is a social experiment, a very human attempt to aid what is already alive within us. While the focus will be self-confrontation (watch for your invitation), the truth of the matter is, The Ripening Room will be a place to celebrate what we all have in common, a vital connection with the evolving edge of Creation.

 

Being human is, with all our fragility and limitation, living at the edge, in the ripening zone.