Aging and Spirituality: Reclaiming Connection through Storytelling.

In this article, the author suggests it is possible for older persons to renew community connections with storytelling and, through this means, to ask some compelling questions. The answers to these questions provide a sense of meaning and purpose for a life well lived. ********* The last stage of life provides an individual with the opportunity to approach the crucial tasks of adjusting to many losses, maintaining outside interests, and adjusting to retirement. Erikson (1959) noted that successful resolution of this stage occurs when individuals can look back on the past and feel few or no regrets. During this stage, it is useful to ask questions that are central to one's spiritual development. Some frequently posed questions include, "What are we?" "Where did we come from?" "Where are we going?" and perhaps even, "How do we celebrate positive development, creative expression, and spirituality over the life span?" Like the Greek god Janus, the psychology of aging has two faces looking in opposite directions. One looks backward--the hermaneutic, interpretative gaze in which we discover where we have been and find what the best of cultural traditions can offer to understand old age. The other face looks forward--with an emancipatory interest in "conscious aging," in late-life creativity, and in positive growth over the life span. Looking both backward and forward can produce ample material for fruitful storytelling: memories on the one hand, creativity and imagination on the other. Joseph Campbell (1972) asserted that this is an age-old truth, and wisdom tales from every culture point to the importance of storytelling as a way of making meaning and sense out of our lives. "We are all made of stories. They are as fundamental to our soul and intellect as flesh, bone and blood are to our bodies" (p. 131) and offer us a way to connect with others (Maguire, 1998). In Michael Novak's (1979) Ascent of the Mountains, Flight of the Dove, he stated, "The completed lives of each trace out a story, whose implications reveal what they took the world in which they lived to be, who they thought they were, what in their actions they actually cared about" (p. 39). The field of psychotherapy all too often looks for symptoms and signs of depression and paranoia among its aging clients. As counselors, we scrutinize their medical conditions because we know that chronic pain and illness may have malignant effects on coping mechanisms. We consider the possibility of dementia and administer quizzes. We worry about isolation and loneliness and wonder if end-of-life issues need to be addressed. As a contrast to this gloomy approach to aging, there is another outlook: that old people are wise, that ripeness is all, and that the best is yet to come. To build on this alternative outlook, this article examines the aging process from the spiritual perspective of building community by telling stories and offers some hopeful possibilities for mental health professionals. WHY STORYTELLING? Jeff Levin (2002), the author who recently published God, Faith and Health: Exploring the Spirituality-Healing Connection, affirmed that an active spiritual life "nourishes and enriches the latter stages of the life course" (p. 63). In his text, Levin suggested that we, as counselors, must not only listen to the stories of older persons, who are eager to find meaning in their lives even as they face their death, but we must also learn the lessons that science uncovers through systematic analyses of the dynamics of the spiritual dimension in our lives. He further suggested we must raise a host of provocative issues related to faith and the meaning of life, the benefits of an enduring relationship with a transcendent being or reality, the essential need for spiritual direction or mentoring, and the importance of themes such as reconciliation for older adults who are acutely aware of their approaching mortality. Although all these themes are worth exploring, it is through helping clients put their lives into perspective within a caring community of other individuals that they can find solace and satisfaction from a life well lived. …