The art of aging forward

Sunshine Place member Marriz B. Agbon, writer, retired executive, and endurance masters athlete has written much on aging, movement and community. He was, however, surprised when attending the senior hub’s holiday party gave him new insights on these subjects. Here, he shares new perspectives on aging, movement and community.

There is life after retirement

Long before “active aging” became policy language, Sunshine Place practiced it — through movement, creativity and care.

Sunshine Place Senior Recreation Center, founded by the Felicidad Tan Sy Foundation, was created to answer a question our society to answer a question our society often avoids: “What does dignity look after retirement?”

After 11 years, it has become “a safe, joyful community where there is life after retirement” with its art, music and wellness lessons, which seniors can enjoy with family and friends.

Aging can be lived

Agbon described walking into a hall filled with seniors, caregivers, walkers, wheelchairs and Disney balloons — ordinary, yet unexpectedly moving. 

He described how dance numbers followed one after another — tap routines, pop songs, choreographed pieces adjusted to bodies that no longer move the way they once did. In between were games: passing a balloon, searching for Disney themed objects, laughing at small mishaps without embarrassment.”

We’re used to thinking of aging as loss: slower movement, fewer roles, shrinking independence. Yet what Agbon witnessed suggested something different — aging can be shaped with intention, community and dignity.

Photograph courtesy of SM

Photograph courtesy of SMMoving in ways that make sense

Even when your body slows, life does not have to shrink.

The highlight of the afternoon, says Agbon, was the Super Seniors Chair Dance.

“Seniors remained seated while caregivers and partners stood beside them, mirroring movements so the dancers could follow,” he says. “Tight knees, fading eyesight, unsteady balance — none of it stopped the performance. It simply reshaped it.”

These Super Seniors were not performing despite their age. They were performing within it.

What struck him most “was not how much they could still do it, but how thoughtfully the environment had been designed to let them do it. Caregivers were not directing from above; they were accompanying from beside. Movement was translated, not imposed. Dignity was built into the program.”

In practice, Agbon says it’s “not a denial of decline, not heroic independence at all costs, but thoughtful design — of spaces, programs and relationships that allow older adults to keep participating, choosing and moving in ways that makes sense for them.

Choosing connection, not isolation

Our deepest fear about aging is not pain or even death, but being left behind.

“The Philippines is aging faster than we like to admit it,” Agbon says. “Families are smaller. Caregiving is harder. Retirement often means isolation.”

With this, it becomes easier for older adults to slip into invisibility. The new year becomes an invitation to look outward, to notice who may be drifting to the margins, to keep them included in conversations and gatherings not only during the holidays, but throughout the year. Sometimes the most meaningful resolution is simply choosing connection.

When we keep seniors engaged, aging becomes less about fading away and more about continuing to belong. When we take aging seriously, it becomes 

“Not perfect.

But humane.

And unmistakably alive.”