Keys to Aging – Purpose

Purpose

The Keys to Aging  website is devoted to the wisdom of the ages. It’s key emphases are:

• discovering the stages life that brought to the age we are today;
• discovering who we are now, and finding pathways for what we may yet become;
• increasing awareness of your unique self, the forces that shape your life, and pathways to increasing your ability to care for your self, your relationships with others, and the planet you call home.

The methods used include providing individual planning sessions, workshops, presentations, research projects, and connecting you to other sources of information important to older adults and their families.

Detailed information about how each of these methods and resources can be found by clicking on Services here or the Services tab at the top of this page.

How the purpose was born.

The purpose was born through my experiences I worked with older adults throughout my life, beginning at age 14.  Now an older adults herself, I am committed to fostering more complete and accurate perceptions of aging.  I found too many people’s first response to telling them of my  work with the old was “that must be depressing”.  I found many older adults were worried about burden to the younger generations, and that looking younger than their age was considered a complement  rather than considering their age an asset to be shared.

I found young and old alike had more negative images of life after 65 than positive. Media depicts age as decline and disease, and popular clichés frame the aged as a group as senile, inactive and disengaged from the world with is far from the truth. In my research I studied the facts  and found the vast majority of those both living in the community and in health care settings were actively engaged in the lives of their families and communities. Even when they could no longer manage on their own, younger generations became involved in working with them in appreciation for all they had received from them.  Yes there were those who fit the negative images, but they were in much smaller percentages than those with positive attributes.

I talked with many families providing care for one another and heard younger and older generations  wishing they had known more about their grandparents and parents before they died. They wanted to ask them about what  they had been through and how they had managed as they aged.  Those who had the opportunity to stay connected cherished the times they had with one another both through life’s difficulties and times of reunions. Laughter was as frequent at sorrows at funerals and during the last few hours of life

This is the why the website was born. My hope is to create a better understanding among all the generations of what it is like to grow into the latest years. To be in conversation about how we all can prepare for our oldest years. There are unique challenges presented when we arrive, and we there are still many enjoyments to be found to enhanced the quality of life, even when the quantity of life is short.