When Elders Become Ancestors: Claiming Gloria, Dolly, Wendell & Larry’s Medicine
This morning I woke up to the news that Gloria Steinem has died at 92.
The Washington Post quoted historian Christine Stansell describing Gloria as “to the women’s movement what Martin Luther King Jr. was to civil rights: the galvanizer.”
What a life. What a force for evolution.
This photo is from a writers’ retreat (at Hedgebrook for “women authoring change”) where Gloria and I were both guests in residence nearly twenty years ago. I remember how much fun we had, how soft-spoken and kind she was, and how naturally she asked good questions and listened. She even admitted she didn’t love public speaking! Listening was part of her genius, the capacity to hear what women were experiencing and give voice to what needed to be heard. It was her work that paved the way for me to create the first TN Women’s Career Convention in 1979 where 4,000 women from 16 states gathered for 3 days to hear inspiring speakers and meet 100 employers who wanted to hire them. It changed my life and led to my being named the first women to be the SBA TN Small BusinessMAN of the year!
I talk a lot about Original Medicine—the particular gifts we each carry that make our expression in the world distinctive, undeniable, and necessary to the whole of life. Gloria’s medicine was unmistakably hers, expressed in naming what others couldn’t yet name, challenging structures that diminished women, and helping millions of women see themselves and their possibilities differently.
And now, in little more than a week, we have lost Dolly Parton and Wendell Berry and Dr. Larry Dossey as well, four extraordinary human beings with three completely different expressions of Original Medicine in service to the world.
Damn, it’s hard losing these elders.
Gloria disrupted what needed to change.
Dolly disarmed what kept us apart.
Wendell never let us forget the natural world of which we are a part.
Larry invited us to take seriously what we cannot see—and helped bring the mysteries of consciousness, healing, and prayer into conversation with medicine and science.
There are so many ways to evolve a world.
Holy Fools 2026
I’ve always known Diana Chapman to be a Holy Fool.
And it was clear that Chip Conley is as much of one as I am…
just with a bigger budget.
Our conversation was wide-ranging, and the feedback said it better than I could:
“Oozing with wisdom.”
“Great stories.”
“Made my day.”
“Fun, insightful, encouraging.”
“It went deep… and still had a lightness.”
One person asked for more about “the thread”—
and the William Stafford poem I mentioned:
“There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread. . . ‘
It reminded me what my teacher, Angeles Arrien, used to say to me:
“I love watching you create. You pull on a string, and you pull, and you pull, and you pull… and out comes a hippopotamus!”
That’s the Holy Fool path.
Sometimes the hippo is a dream realized.
And sometimes it’s a public failure of mammoth proportions.
Chip and I talked about both.
What If There’s Nothing to Figure Out
I enter the New Year with a double whammy: a birthday and a new year—both of which can throw my Capricorn mind into overload with all that might be possible if I could just FIGURE IT OUT.
After all, the war cry of the Capricorn is:
“There’s a harder way to do this, and I’ll find it—even if it kills me!”
This pattern is deeply embedded, and I tend to succumb to it before the wiser part of me steps in to remind me of something my great teacher Angeles Arrien often said:
Each day there are two plans.
My Plan.
And the Mystery’s Plan.
I’ve lived enough life to know that the Mystery’s Plan is always the higher road—designed for greater freedom, deeper joy, and a more truthful expression of who we are.
That understanding gave rise to a new program—one that opens us to the Mystery’s Plan.
A Solstice Blessing: Listening at the Threshold
At the solstice…
we stand at a threshold.
A place where light and dark meet…
in dynamic balance.
The dark invites us to listen deeply.
The light calls us into expression.
In dark times,
May we Listen not only for what it ours to do—
But for who we are to become to meet them.
May we trust the medicine
that is uniquely ours to carry.
And may we offer it in service of a world
that honors all of life.
May this turning of the year
meet you exactly where you are.
And may your Listening
guide your light.
Solstice blessings, dear soul.
All Love,
Gail
On October 31, thirteen of us gathered on the Listening Playground and asked the question
By Listening Together, we received an answer that is teaching us how to live –and play!
There is no hierarchy in the web of life.
There is only relationship.
When we play, we restore flow.
When we listen, we remember how to belong.
Big News! Transformational Speaking moving to Modern Elder Academy in 2026
Stop Performing. Start Connecting – Live with Gail Larsen Tuesday, Oct. 21
Big news! Beginning in 2026, I’ll be offering my public programs exclusively through Modern Elder Academy (MEAWisdom) at the 2,600-acre Rising Circle Ranch just outside Santa Fe.
It’s a homecoming of sorts — a collaboration that allows this work to deepen in the very landscape that birthed it.
All this unfurled after Derek Gehl, CEO of MEA, traveled from Vancouver to attend my June Transformational Speaking Immersion. (Yes, the one I keep calling my “final one”… except every time I do, more people clamor to come! Life is funny that way.)
Is Your Story — Told or Untold — Holding You Back from a New Story?
I’m writing to you today in service of better stories — yours, mine, and the ones we’re here to co-create. After all, the subtitle of my book Transformational Speaking is: If you want to change the world, tell a better story.
Oh, the stories we tell!
- There’s the “signature story” we tell from the platform that defines us (and can become the very thing that holds us back.)
- There are the stories we hold in silence and are afraid to speak. They need to be told — not to an audience, but to someone who can truly hear us — so we can heal and move forward.
- And then there’s the new story, beckoning us to the possibility that awaits.
Recently I heard from two clients — both from 2015 — whose stories are changing. Our renewed connections reminded me of the deep privilege it is to witness new stories as they begin to take form and how agonizing that process can be. We’re attached! These stories — and the identities they’ve shaped — have often carried us to the pinnacle of success. So why must they change just when we think we’ve arrived?! (And really, how could we ever “arrive” when life itself is in constant motion?)
Presence or Perfection? Why Your Most Powerful Talk Can’t be Scripted
I’ve spent years helping others find their way back to the truth beneath the script. As I walk that path myself, this blog post offers two reflections:
- The Trouble with Scripts
- Where My Unscripted Life is Leading Me Now—and your invitation to join me!
Recently I witnessed a speaker who showed up with a beautiful script. A page was missing and she proceeded to “lose it.” A blank stare, then panic.
I’ve often witnessed that “losing it” is the beginning of “finding it”, although the speaker usually doesn’t experience it that way! That’s what happened here. In losing her place, she found herself in the moment. Only then did those of us in the audience feel something real happen and begin to relate to what she had to share.
One More Transformational Speaking Immersion! Santa Fe May 8-11
I’m sending this email to my entire list, including beloved clients and those I have yet to meet. Many graduates return to the Immersion years later when things are changing—and change is definitely afoot! Here’s how life and work are shifting for me, and I invite you to join me to get out of jetlag of your own life and catch up to who you’ve become and explore what wants to speak through you now!
One More Immersion. May 8-11, Santa Fe.
In December I celebrated my 8-OH! and it is actually the first birthday that seized my attention as a significant number! I understand the blessing of a long life and the opportunity it provides to review and reflect. As I do so, I recognize I have gifts to continue to bring to the world that are needed in these transformational times. Yet how might that form change as I embrace elderhood? And embrace it I do!
Hey, Holy Fool — Today Is Your Day!
Dear Holy Fool (or Holy Fool in Waiting),
This is the day I celebrate those of you who step outside convention to find your voice and become the radical change artist your soul is calling you to be!
You don’t do what’s expected. You transcend conditioning and do what the more “sensible” among us would avoid, choosing a path that others deem “impossible.” Doors open where others wouldn’t think to knock. You hear the knocking from the inside and live the life you came to live.
In 2014, I was besotted by Joseph Campbell’s statement that the Holy Fool is the most dangerous person on earth and the most threatening to all hierarchical institutions. That’s when I created Holy Fools Day, and I’ve been celebrating Holy Fools ever since.
When Transformational Speaker Tania Vasallo interviewed me for her podcast, The Courage to Be, I realized my affinity for the Holy Fool is because I am one! Here’s the podcast in two sections:
First, my storied path to an unconventional life and business: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-courage-to-be/id1664543123
Second, the original way I approach public speaking in my Transformational Speaking classes — from the inside out. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-courage-to-be/id1664543123
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Books by Transformational Speakers 2025
We love our authors and Transformational Speakers!
And every year, I gather their newest creations into a holiday giftbook list that just might save you from wandering the aisles (real or virtual) wondering what to give.
Think of this as your one-stop inspiration shop — with something for everyone on your list, from the wonder-filled children to the kick-ass elders who keep life interesting.
This year has been amazing.
In September I travelled to Bath, England and had the joy of working with 8 illustrious Hay House authors in a manor house that felt like a castle.
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