POSSIBILITIES START NOW
AgeStrong reinforces a sense of personal uniqueness, individuality, and decision; a readiness to begin; a declaration of progress, adventure, a going forward, a confident, continued search for a fulfilling life.
LEARN MOREAgeStrong rekindles a spirit of self-discovery and connects us to the pursuit of a possibilities-driven life. In the AgeStrong view, we are not passive survivors, struggling from one life transition to the next, but explorers always learning to live beyond the fringes, asserting integrity of purpose. The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.
AgeStrong provides detours from our well-traveled habitual path of accommodation and encourages us to dive into the great space of possibility where it is certain we will encounter something never envisioned or not often experienced, gain fresh perspective as it informs personal endeavor and resilience, and rid ourselves of the constraints which require us to grit our teeth and lurch our way over the hurdles of growing older.
Not simply something we do, AgeStrong is also something we are and a special way of being alive. Feel the impulse, motivation, energy and rhythm of AgeStrong as it links us to the whole web of life’s possibilities. Join the game of making a whole out of parts, a reimagined way of teasing the fragments of life into a vision of completeness, of fullness.
Finally, AgeStrong is an attitude that we must apply to our day-to-day obstacles – facing unfamiliar challenges, seizing new opportunities, testing our resources against the unknown and, in the process, discovering our unique capacity to master the seemingly impossible.
Nancy and Birt Duncan
LEARN MOREIn the words of Betty Friedan, “Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” Tens of millions of people in their fifties, sixties, seventies and beyond are living longer, healthier, more productive lives. They’re beginning to wake up to this new longevity – in many cases thirty years more – and what it means in terms of their expectations and the composition of their lives.
Today, if you make it to sixty-five, you can presume to survive about nineteen more years. This new life stage still lacks a clear definition and accurate label. Some are calling it “The Third Chapter”, “The Opportunity Generation”, “The Encore Stage”, “Extended Middle Age”, “Next Avenue”, “Adult Part 2”, “The Second Mountain.”
Many people at this stage of life struggle to navigate economic, health, social, personal and technological actualities unlike previous generations. And many do not know where to turn for help or guidance. Aside from many institutions stuck in a twentieth century mindset, the public’s perception and vision of aging are out of touch with what lies ahead. They simply don’t know how to live with these “longevity bonus” years, how to respond to this momentous, unparalleled opportunity, how to accept and take responsibility for this extraordinary gift.
AgeStrong has stepped up to this challenge through its emphasis on self-discovery, personal actions, and possibility-driven living.
About AgeStrong
Choosing AgeStrong finds support in Barbara Kingsolver’s “High Tide in Tucson”: “Every one of us is called upon probably many times to start a new life. A frightening diagnosis, a marriage, a move, loss of a job, (a divorce, an unanticipated relationship, a family fracture) . . . And onward full tilt we go, pitched and wrecked and absurdly resolute, driven in spite of everything to make good on a new shore. To be hopeful, to embrace one possibility after another -- that is surely the basic instinct . . . Crying out: High tide! Time to move out into the glorious debris. Time to take this life for what it is.”
Seamus Heaney connects AgeStrong with navigating the challenges of daily living. “Getting started, keeping going, getting started again – it seems to me this is life’s essential rhythm.”