Activity time: 25 minutes Introduce this activity, saying: While it can be difficult at any time to deal with end-of-life issues because they concern our own mortality and the unknown, it is easier to make known our end-of-life health-care decisions while we are in good health....

Activity time: 20 minutes Introduce the activity with these or similar words: Buckminster Fuller, the inventor of the geodesic dome and other imaginative designs, was called the last Transcendentalist philosopher of the twentieth century because he saw human beings as a part of life and nature an...

Activity time: 25 minutes Invite participants to turn to their journal reflections, which they completed before the workshop, and respond to the question, “What would I like my obituary to say about me?” Ask them to turn to another person and to share to the degree they are comfortable. Allow...

Activity time: 10 minutes Lead the group in these exercises, adapted from the book Five Minute Massage by Robert Thé, demonstrating as you lead. Begin with a new exercise for the arms and then add one from Workshop 4. Remind participants to do them only if they are physically able to do so:...

Activity time: 5 minutes Light the chalice and offer these words adapted from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: In a house which becomes a home, one hands down and another takes up the heritage of mind and heart, laughter and tears, musings and deeds. Love like a carefully loaded ship, crosses the gulf...

Activity time: 20 minutes Welcome participants as they arrive. Invite them to wear their name tags and to place their special objects on the cloth around the chalice. Encourage them to chat over lunch. As lunchtime draws to a close, share the poem “On Aging” from AND STILL I RISE by Maya...

Arrange for coffee, tea, and water at the workshop. Arrange for furniture setup: For large group: Place tables in a horseshoe arrangement (leaders at the head table, chairs around outside of tables). For smaller group: Place one or two table tables in a rectangle (leaders sit at a middle side and...

Coffee, tea, and water service items Tissues (for participant use) Newsprint, markers, and tape Chalice, candle, and lighter, or LED battery-operated candle Cloth and decorations for worship table: flowers, leaves, plant, small sculpture, or other decorative items Chime or bell for signaling time...

Today’s consumer-driven society wants adults to forget that aging is a natural process that can be navigated gracefully without plastic surgery and hair dye—and overmedication. When individuals realize they can do nothing to keep from growing old, except of course to die young, they may develop...

My future starts when I wake up every morning. — Miles Davis Life is a continual process of letting go…and moving forward…and letting go… and moving forward. For there are times when our souls are set on fire, and deeply cherished dreams must die...and we are forced once again to create new...

Activity time: 10 minutes Post the closing words so all can see them. Shuffle and set out Blessing Cards, text side down, and invite each participant to take one. Then take a card and read your blessing aloud. Invite participants in turn to share their blessing aloud. Allow a pause between each...

Activity time: 5 minutes Distribute Handout 1, Looking Ahead to Workshop 5. Respond to any questions.

Activity time: 10 minutes Invite participants to move into pairs to share their mandalas, to the degree they are comfortable. Use the bell or chime at five minutes to signal time to change speakers.

Activity time: 15 minutes Give each person a half sheet of cover stock with a circle drawn on it. Invite them to honor their object and what it symbolizes by using their own art supplies to create a mandala. Explain that they will reflect what their object means to them by using color, line, and...

Activity time: 30 minutes Ask: “Was it easy or difficult to decide which object to bring with you?” Allow time for responses. Tell participants that you will ask them one at a time to stand or sit near the chalice and share their object with other participants. Ask them to hold their meaningful...

Activity time: 15 minutes Invite participants to look at the array of meaningful objects around the chalice and then to focus on their own object. Post the journaling questions and invite participants to journal about their object, using the posted questions to help them get started.

Activity time: 10 minutes Lead the group in these exercises, adapted from the book Five Minute Massage by Robert Thé. Demonstrating as you lead, begin with the exercise from previous workshops and add another. Remind participants to do them only if they are physically able: Exercise 1: Take a...

Activity time: 5 minutes Light the chalice and offer these words from Sophia Lyon Fahs: We pause in reverence before all intangible things that eyes see not, nor ears detect that hands can never touch that space can not hold and time can not measure....

Activity time: 20 minutes Welcome participants as they arrive and ask them to put on their name tags. Invite them to put their special objects on the cloth around the chalice. Encourage them to chat over lunch. As lunchtime draws to a close, share these words of Caroline Joy Adams, used with...