Aging, Dying, Death, Grief

Excerpt:
“Jeff: We need to distinguish between the universe as a whole, and different parts within it. The solar system, for example, is a part which is in equilibrium, but the universe as a whole is going further away from equilibrium.”

Ann Kreilkamp

Aging, Dying, Death, Grief

Excerpt:
“Clock time takes away the original sense of cyclical time with which nature bestowed us. Clock time is linear time, the endless string of moments, each of equal (no) value, a mere point on a line, itself alone, enjoying no context, no matrix, no meaningful connection with what lay before or what is to come.”

Ann Kreilkamp

Aging, Dying, Death, Grief

Excerpt:
“Terry [Tempest Williams] tells Kathryn [her mother] didn’t wake up until she was 50 years old. That’s when she began to read Krishnamurti, during the 1950s, when everybody around her was asleep. The two of us are talking exactly one month to the day after Kathryn’s death, at the “ripe old age” of 84.”

Ann Kreilkamp

Aging, Dying, Death, Grief

Excerpt:
“Saturn can symbolize form, definition, identity, discipline; negatively, it can signify oppression, inhibition, blockage, manipulation. The first way of utilizing the Saturn energy builds character and a certain nobility of spirit; the second way leads to cynicism, bitterness, a certain rigidity of body, mind, and spirit.”

Ann Kreilkamp

Aging, Dying, Death, Grief

Excerpt:
“For the past six days I have spent two or more hours a day painting the opening of an amaryllis bud. . . An amazing experience. The flower grows faster at its leading end, as matter is more and more differentiated, more and more delicate. So I have to keep up with its growth….”

Ann Kreilkamp

Aging, Dying, Death, Grief

Excerpt:
“So, on the one hand, I do accept the aging process, for the wisdom which is distilled from it; and on the other hand, I want to slow down the aging process as much as possible, so that I can be fully functioning up until (I hope) the very end of my life. Both feelings are there. Both are to be embraced as paradox.”

Ann Kreilkamp