January Week 4: Year One SASS Study Guide
Unintended Consequences
Welcome SASS to this week’s study guide! But first…
Dear Old Souls,
I promised that as soon as we felt comfortable with the level and pace of conversation between members in the comments below each post, we’d launch a forum for any of us to raise a topic related to aging as a spiritual experience for discussion—personal or reflective. I’m here to say we’ve done it! As a result, our first monthly members-only SASS Roundtable makes its debut this coming Wednesday, Jan. 22.
The Roundtable is in addition to our weekly subject-specific chats that follow every study guide post, such as the one on Unintended Consequences below. I will rerun our community guidelines with our first Roundtable so we’re all on the same page regarding deepening the conversation while maintaining the sanctity of our safe space.
Meanwhile, here’s to another week growing not just old but whole together.
—Carol Orsborn
This Week’s Excerpt: Unintended Consequences
“For so many years you had to rely on your ego defenses: the belief that you could control things and beat the odds to succeed. Without these beliefs, there would have been aspects of yourself too vulnerable to be left exposed, unprotected. However, many of these coping strategies created issues of their own that you then had to address.”
—Carol Orsborn, Spiritual Aging: Weekly Reflections for Embracing Life