Aging and Quaker Spirituality

“Late light, photographers tell us, is the richest light of all. In the hour before the sun sets, it imbues the landscape with depth and warmth. This is a dynamic and fleeting time. So too, in the last years of your life, your inner light begins to shift. New wavelengths prevail, slower and more beautiful. You can approach your life with greater clarity and tenderness.”

I hope you sense what a glorious future awaits you in old age. No longer will you dread the evening of life as a time of unremitting suffering and futility, but as an opportunity for continued growth in consciousness and service to humanity. What a vista, what a wonderful adventure, what a miraculous window of opportunity awaits us in old age!

“Old age is a great blessing, notwithstanding all the sufferings incident to it; for they are like harbingers, to bid us prepare.”

“Growing old, even when that means facing physical or other changes, can help us focus on what is essential. As we age, our perspective on what has meaning is refined. When we slow down, whether because of physical changes or by choice, we often become more contemplative. We may want to share memories and stories, to forgive or be forgiven, to express gratitude, to focus on our most essential values. Older adulthood offers the opportunity to model peace.”

“There are fewer and fewer things that truly matter. The years have accumulated such a store of inner lasting value that I no longer feel the weight of the perishable…. My life is becoming intensely focused on presence and Presence.”

“In the end, people don’t view their life as merely the average of all its moments—which, after all, is mostly nothing much plus some sleep. For human beings, life is meaningful because it is a story. A story has a sense of a whole, and its arc is determined by the significant moments, the ones where something happens.”

“In old age, a person may give birth to new things, in ways that seemed laughable when he or she was young. We strive in our youth for what we want from life. As we mature and grow in our spiritual journeys, we come to understand that what we desire may not accord with God’s will for us.”

“In the end, people don’t view their life as merely the average of all its moments—which, after all, is mostly nothing much plus some sleep. For human beings, life is meaningful because it is a story. A story has a sense of a whole, and its arc is determined by the significant moments, the ones where something happens.”

“It is very hard to find anything joyful if you are suffering grief, loss, pain or sadness. However, joy can emerge as a result of our faith; it is one of the “fruits of the spirit”. For Quakers, this can mean silent worship or prayer, either individually or in a group. We seek to come closer to the Spirit and to be open to Divine Guidance. As a result of worship, many of us feel deep connection to each other, to society, to the universe.”

“All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change. God is Change.”

“I pray most for courage, especially as I get older and my bones can be broken more easily. The last time I was arrested, the roadway that I lay on was extremely hard, and I didn’t know what the police… might have in their minds.”

Who made the world? / Who made the swan, and the black bear? / Who made the grasshopper? / This grasshopper, I mean— / the one who has flung herself out of the grass, / the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, / who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down— / who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

“We must be confident that there is still more ‘life’ to be ‘lived’ and yet more heights to be scaled. The tragedy of middle age is that, so often, men and women cease to press ‘towards the goal of their high calling’. They cease learning, cease growing; they give up and resign from life. As wisdom dawns with age, we begin to measure our experiences not by what life gives to us, not by the things withheld from us, but by their power to help us to grow in spiritual wisdom.”

“Each morning is new now. I wake to the inner music of thanks for the dear gift of life and with eager plans for the uses of the day. The first sound I hear, whether a flock of chirping birds, or the whispering wind, or of traffic with its urgency, is dear. The growing light is an omen, and a good one. Thoughts crowd in, and the mind’s wheels begin their busy turning like those of the cars and trucks out on the main road.”

“Every stage of our lives offers fresh opportunities. Responding to divine guidance, try to discern the right time to undertake or relinquish responsibilities without undue pride or guilt. Attend to what love requires of you, which may not be great busyness.”

“I am convinced it is a great art to know how to grow old gracefully, and I am determined to practise it… I always thought I should love to grow old, and I find it even more delightful than I thought. It is so delicious to be done with things, and to feel no need any longer to concern myself much about earthly affairs… I am tremendously content to let one activity after another go, and to await quietly and happily the opening of the door at the end of the passage-way, that will let me in to my real abiding place.”

“As I grow older, I seem to need more time for inner stillness…. This can happen in the midst of daily chores or when walking in a crowd or riding in a train. It means being still, open, reflective, holding within myself the crucible of joy and pain of all the world, and lifting it up to God.”

“The ability to sleep may well forsake us, leaving us wakeful for two or three hours in those darkest and most interminable hours of the night, say from two to five. This can be a real affliction: we can toss and turn and try angrily to fall asleep again. Or it can be an opportunity…”

“Sometimes religion appears to be presented as offering easy cures for pain: have faith and God will mend your hurts; reach out to God and your woundedness will be healed. The Beatitude ‘Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted’ can be interpreted this way too, but the Latin root of the word ‘comfort’ means ‘with strength’ rather than ‘at ease’. The Beatitude is not promising to take away our pain; indeed the inference is that the pain will remain with us. It does promise that God will cherish us and our wound, and help us draw a blessing from our distressed state.”

“The most effective workshop for learning how to hallow one’s diminishments is the faithful practice of contemplative prayer…. Loneliness, which is a negative experience, can be transmuted into solitude, which is a positive blessing. Loneliness of itself debilitates. Solitude builds up, affords a conscious setting in which significant growth in the life of the Spirit can take place. Solitude is a gift of time without accompanying distraction, an opportunity to keep company with one’s own soul. It is where the Holy Spirit can help one harness one’s own cross in such a way that it can be carried without too great strain. It is what St. Paul called, ‘the life which is hid with Christ in God.'”

“Six and one-half years into retirement, I ask: what is retirement for? The signposts around me are inadequate and the expectations ill- defined at best. The advice available is of the kind that says, ‘Start saving early so you’ll have enough money for what you want.’ ‘Watch your health so you’ll be able to do what you want.’ ‘Here are the 20 best places to live if you want to play golf, or fish, or enjoy the weather.’ ‘Do this or do that so you can leave to your heirs what you have worked so hard to accumulate.’ ‘Don’t be a burden to your children or interfere in their lives.’ ‘Get a hobby.’ ‘Volunteer.’ None of these seemed to come close to answering the question that opened for me: ‘What is retirement for?'”

“I departed for the wild blue yonder on November 6th, 2025. I look forward to someday meeting you there.”