Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi was approaching his 60th birthday. The realization came to him that he was getting old, and he felt alone and vulnerable and feared becoming “a geriatric case who follows the predictable pattern of retirement, painful physical diminishment, a rocking chair existence in a nursing home, and the eventual dark and inevitable end to life.” He wrote a book, “From Age-ing to Sage-ing” and shared some heartwarming experiences and wisdom as he sought to learn about aging in a secluded cabin with the help of Sufi masters, Buddhist teachers, and Native-American shamans. He was leaving an old phase of life that he had outgrown. He asked himself, “If I had to die now, what would I most regret not having done? What remains incomplete in my life?”
