The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul
A guide to working through the inner obstacles of late life and embracing the spiritual gifts of aging.
A 6-week book study and sharing circle
with Chris Flynn
2 groups beginning June 1, 2023 at 11am and 7pm
$125 for 6 session series
This is your invitation to become an Elder: to leave behind your past roles. You are invited to shift from your work in the outer world, to delve deep into your inner work with your soul. Here you will find your authentic self, renewed as Elder, filled with vitality, joy, and purpose.
The call of our elder years often awakens in us a yearning for something more, a longing to transcend old roles, a worn-out identity, or an outdated purpose. We want to connect with something larger. We are invited to cross a threshold and trade the image of youth for the depth of age, trade distraction for self-knowledge, reaction for reflection, information for wisdom.
With extended longevity comes this wonderful opportunity for extended personal growth and spiritual development.
We will take our time with this book a chapter each week opening to discuss our personal experiences. We’ll find a broad range of ideas interviews and spiritual practices that will illuminate the inner work we each need to undertake for ourselves. We will practice “deep listening” to really hear and presence one another. Through “deep listening” we honor the person sharing, while at the same time, finding those places where we resonate (or don’t) …
The group experience will create community of soul connections. The author shared her feelings after a conversation with Marion Woodman:
“As we spoke, I could feel our hearts and minds joining and the room expanding to hold us in a larger container. We had moved beyond ego, behind our rules and labels, to experience a soul connection.” (pg. 277)
Chris Flynn:
Chris has been facilitating heart-centered groups for over 50 years.
She creates Sacred Spaces where people feel safe and comfortable expressing and sharing what’s in their hearts and minds.
From the Consciousness Raising of the 60’s, to The Course in Miracles of the 70’s, all the way up to present day, she has always invited participants to get out of their heads and into their hearts, and to speak from their own personal experience.
In the 1980’s she worked as a lay-minister and outreach coordinator for several Unity Churches. In the 1990’s she completed her Masters in Metaphysical Pastoral Counseling and was ordained as a non-denominational minister. She founded Conscious Connections Community, where she facilitated weekly groups and retreats. Her groups and workshops were closely affiliated with Unity, Unitarian, and Science of Mind churches.
For many years, Chris volunteered on the Suicide Prevention hotline. Then, in 2014, Chris joined her local Hospice Grief Support team. Seeing the need for community, beyond what Hospice could provide, she formed the New Horizons Community for widows and widowers. This group has been meeting via Zoom for three years. Her groups have included: Loss in the Second Year, The Five Invitations, Friday Family Check-in, Grief in the Time of Covid, The Artist’s Journey through Grief, Grief in the Holidays, and It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again.
As a Catholic youth, Chris had the ability to “blur her eyes,” and see what the priests and nuns really meant. Now, at 75, and a student of the Tao, those early perceptions have come full circle, fortifying her concept of creating Sacred Spaces for personal and group growth.
From The Tao of Leadership: Verse 37.
Doing Little. Selfless gives one center.
Center creates order.
When there is order, there is little to do.
Chris lives in the California Redwoods with her husband and Saint Bernard. Six years ago, while visiting her Wisconsin relatives, she discovered the Christine Center and immediately found her spiritual home. She has attended many of the Christine Center’s virtual classes, the weekly Tao group, plus, last year she attended in person, The Tao in the Summer. Through ‘Quantum Connecting via Zoom’ (thank you Sr. Gabe), Chris enjoys her deep connection with the Christine Center community.