Sailing to Byzantium: The Poetics of Aging (Online)

Aging with intention is a creative and courageous act, a path to wholeness. It becomes an art form, a poetry, when we allow for inner beauty and strength to emerge and challenge our inevitable biological limits. Our temperament, attitudes, and habits determine much of our experience as the body ages. Being playful, joyful, grateful, loving, and undeterred are some of the attitudes we can contemplate and foster, and many thinkers have addressed how the psychology and spirituality of the second half of life calls us to develop these sometimes new and unexpected qualities. In this program, we will apply some of these lessons, both scientifically-derived and wisdom-inspired, to the challenges and opportunities of our pilgrimage into latter life. Join us to explore how the arts and the archetypal can support our collective journeys – laden with new joys, new burdens, and, above all, opportunities that could not present themselves in the busy-ness of our midlife years.

This program is being offered ONLINE only.  Recordings will be distributed to registered participants only, and will not be availble for individual purchase.

All times are CT. Please contact onlinelearning@junghouston.org with any questions.

Please register early. Programs with four or fewer participants are subject to cancellation, 48 hours prior to their start.

Nóirín Ní Riain, PhD, has had an extraordinary career as Ireland’s Celtic jewel of song and soul. A theologian, musicologist, and recording artist, she has written several books, including her autobiography, Listen with the Ear of the Heart, and Theosony: A Theology of Listening. Her latest book, published by Hachette Press in 2023, is Sacred Rituals: An Everyday Book of Prayer, and is on the best seller list of non-fiction. In 2003, she was awarded the first ever doctorate in theology from Mary Immaculate College for her originality in creating a theology of listening, for which she coined the term theosony – meaning "the sound of God". She has presented workshops throughout the world and each year leads a select group on a Journey of the Soul in Ireland – Turas d'Anam - a pilgrimage of transformative experience brimming with depth and joy. Nóirín is an ordained interfaith minister now immersed in her new role as a celebrant of rituals, blessings, and sacred ceremonies, and she currently works as a spiritual counsellor for people from all over the world. 

John P. Schuster is an author, coach and educator who speaks to a wide range of audiences on thriving during the transitions that come with maturing. He has been working in the fields of leadership and adult development for many years, first for those in early and mid-career and more recently for those in later-life stages. He is a regular resource as a coach and as a teacher for a variety of individuals and audiences in various stages of their aging process. His books include one on purpose and vitality, and another on life review and helping your past work for you. He produced a podcast with Public Radio, Stories for the Ages, on aging consciously, carried by NPR. He holds advanced degrees in literature and Jungian psychology and has four grandkids in Ohio – reminding him and his wife Patricia that aging has many joys.