Coffee, tea, and water service items Tissues (for participant use) Chalice, candle, and lighter, or LED battery-operated candle Cloth Chime or bell for signaling time Name badges from Workshop 1 Group Rules of Respect from Workshop 1 Singing the Living Tradition, the UUA hymnbook, enough for all...

Workshop 6 applauds the group of wise elders who have shared Hindsight, Humor, and Hope. Participants are honored for their hard work reviewing personal life happenings and learnings....

On Aging When you see me sitting quietly, like a sack upon a shelf, Don’t think I need your chattering. I’m listening to myself. Hold! Stop! Don’t pity me! Hold! Stop your sympathy! Understanding if you got it, otherwise I’ll do without it! When my bones are stiff and aching and my feet...

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 blessings aloud. Allow a pause between each...

Activity time: 5 minutes Tell participants that you will have a celebration at the final workshop and that lunchtime will be a little longer. Explain your plans (for example, a potluck lunch or a lunch prepared by others) and what participants need to bring. Distribute Handout 1, Looking Ahead to...

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.