Serving from Spirit

Serving from Spirit continues the yearlong exploration of THE SPIRITUALITY OF LATER LIFE that began with the 2011 Winter issue of Itineraries.This issue opens with Drew Leder's tribute to Dene Peterson in "The Sprite of ElderSpirit," the country's first elder cohousing community. Then, in her overview of the volume, guest editor Claudia Moore notes how the idea of service to something greater than self has been central to humankind's understanding of spirituality.'An essay by Roger Walsh frames the conversation by exploring the two central goals of spirituality: to awaken to our true nature and to help heal and awaken others. If, by healing ourselves, we in fact also heal the world, as writer Judith Helburn affirms, what is the next step? How can YOU serve? Robert Atchley asks in his article. How - in Paul Severance's words -do you "answer the call from the future"? Two of our writers - Claudia Moore, in "Pentecost with Andrew Harvey," and Carol Cober, in "Everyday Mysticism" - reflect on powerful personal experiences that called them to service. Finally, Pat and Steve Taylor, in "Championing Stone Age Technology," profile the inspiring work of Purpose Prize winner Jock Brandis. A quartet of articles rounds out the issue. In "Remembering Christopher," Second Journey founder Bolton Anthony pays tribute to the life and work of a young photojournalist killed in Libya. Second Journey sage in residence, John G. Sullivan, looks at "Service Through Life's Seasons." And Barbara Kammerlohr reviews books by Deborah Windrum and John Sullivan in "Metaphor and the Aging Process." Finally, we reprise a foreword by the late Theodore Roszak that challenges "America's most audacious generation" to take up again "the unfinished business of the sixties."