Save the Date! The Fifth Season with Mark Nepo

We are excited to welcome Mark Nepo back to Siena Retreat Center in the fall of 2027! While we are working on finalizing details and getting the registration links up and running, we’ve provided a Save the Date interest list form here for your convenance! Once registration is live, our system will send you an email with the details so you can be the first to know!

About the Book

The Fifth Season: Creativity in the Second Half of Life

As the years go by, the question for each of us becomes more and more real: What does it mean to age? Despite the limitations that come as the body wears down, there are many gifts to inhabit by aging. So much is gained and so much is shed along the way.

Now in his seventies, poet and philosopher Mark Nepo explores the rhythms of aging in the second half of life. More than ever, we are called to live a creative life as we age, which leads us to inhabit what the Chinese call the fifth season, that time in late summer when the glare is gone and only the color of things as they are can reach us. And so, the second half of life is a turning point, a time of integration and transformation that helps us make sense of our experience. All seasons lead to this season, all experiences to this understanding of experience. In truth, we each must face living and dying from the inside of the one life we are given. But we can share the journey, which is the purpose of this book, to be a companion in your effort to enter the fifth season of your life.