Aging gracefully

by Colleen Cody

Editor’s note: As part of monthly homework assignments, students are asked to share class reflections. This post is taken from Colleen’s February 2024 reflection of Herbs in the Cycles of Life—Elder Health and Vitality, led by director and co-founder, Claudia Keel.

At 56—not a chippie, not an ancient either. That’s me. 

I read that human aging happens in spurts—at 44, your aging apprenticeship begins and at 60, your master years of becoming a community elder lay its path before you. Weirdly this comforts me. It seems to give some well-needed structure and room, a push back to the binary of youth culture: if you ain’t young, you old. 

O-L-D like Methuselah (wow, this one is truly weird and truly old) or the mountains, or as my Mom likes to say, O-L-D as dirt. This new study shows we age and we age more, and more—hallelujah, a gradation, a via media. If “the greatest wealth is health” (Virgil) then a smart investment strategy would be to set oneself up to make ‘bank’ in the golden years, thriving in body and mind. 

My Mom is also fond of saying, We're not here for a long time. We're here for a good time. 

This: Age is just a number (implying high numbers needn’t apply here) irks me so! It seems yet another way to arrive at a culture that holds old synonymous with ravaged, dry, used, weak, incompetent, gullible, sick, burdensome, stuck, in the way, subtractive...bad. 

PSA: AVOID O-L-D at all costs. 

I think these barbs are sharper for women as they age. Certainly, many women in the market to avoid aging or at least gentle its effect do find purses capacious enough to hold resources that cover all costs. I find myself seduced at times; it’s persuasive to be relevant and hip with the kids. That hack trope of the miserable, old cat lady was recently dusted off and trotted out, zero shame. That is cultural hardcode. 

I’ve been binging all things Blue Zone. My takeaway is a sense of relief that many cultures find aging normal, important, and respectable. Space is held for it. Across the different cultures explored, how to finely age seems to have no one formula or way. It is culturally contextualized. 

I looked up the origin of elder and landed near ancient. I find this beautiful: from the Greek, arkhaios, literally “belonging to the beginning,” which parallels French ancien, used mostly with reference to things “of former times.” 

The Ancients. Our Ancestors. Those who connect us to the beginning. Funny to think, who is giving space to whom. 

As I age, I grow aware of life changing my body and mind—how I love; the way I parent; what boundaries I hold; how I expend attention and resources; view the culture; feel connection; assign value; define hope...

In my orbit, friends and family are older now and often, encountering health challenges and sickness. This is new: the aches, complaints, medical care, and interventions. 

Sometimes I do not know how to react. I’d like to be helpful. The plants want us to be helpful too. 

How to get the herbs in, or as Claudia said, A Way In. We discussed the baseline we all arrive with—our genetics, epigenetics, ojas, jing—and then there is what we acquire along the path of our lives. 

I learned: 

Dosage: “The dose makes the poison" (dosis sola facit venenum - only the dose makes the poison, Paracelsus). Low dose is better for older people. 

Let food be the medium. Formulate with absorption enhancing herbs like ginger, sage, trikatu, bitters, fennel. 

And this surprised me, avoid napping. Adaptogens can help older people have the energy to sleep. We are too tired to sleep holds so much for me. Here we find friends in ashwaganda, rodiola, passionflower, lavender (in a diffuser), valerian, lemon balm, chamomile, and skullcap. Sleep is the medicine. No matter the age. 

We spoke about Alzheimers and depression, and the importance of nootropics, or brain restoratives, to promote mental acuity and states of wellness. Turmeric (taken with a carminative for absorption), oats, verbena, lavender, rosemary, mugwort, St. John’s Wort, lion’s mane and turkey tail, gingko, gotu kola, bacopa. 

We also spoke about drug interactions, especially as so many are on multiple medications. 

A self-portrait of Käthe Kollwitz, 1934. She is 67.

I liked this quote she shared: 

“To keep a quiet heart, sit like a tortoise, walk spritely like a pigeon, sleep like a dog.” 

—Li Ching-Yuen, master elder, herbalist, martial artist, and advisor. 

YES! Old dogs can learn new tricks.

Impulsive thoughts: 

Wisdom, the medicine for stupidity. 

The long form is built from a series of short forms. 

Experience, the medicine for foolhardiness. 

Sustained witnessing is the path for pattern recognition. 

And Medicine: MED-, the verb medeor itself, however, has a remote ancestry, the ancient Indo- European root MA and MAD and its more familiar hypothetical form MED, meaning to think or to reflect, to give consideration or care to.

Aging is a great meditation of life. The aged ones, wayfinders for the community, witnesses.

The witness’ face is noble. 

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Colleen Cody is an enthusiastic year-two student at ArborVitae.