Diana Elizabeth Percy – Poet | Speaker | Author | Coach

In 2015 I applied to join the Board of the Daylesford Dharma School.  Di Percy was the Chair. I was heading into semi-retirement and wanted to remain engaged with work that mattered.  Not that being on a school board was what I had in mind, but the confluence of governance and the Mahayana Buddhist perspective was attractive to me at that time.

Di had taught organisation dynamics and leadership at Swinburne and RMIT and we had some common contacts.  She was a practicing psychotherapist, author, poet, speaker and leadership mentor.  When we first met in 2015 she told me she had been writing a book on Elderhood; “Becoming an Elder:  Practicing the Wisdom Arts”.  Exploring the elder life stage as a potential period of growth and opportunity.  Free from the challenges of adulthood, we could become who we wanted to be.  She saw the reclamation of the “Elder” in our youth driven western culture as a personal mission. 

In her book and professional work Di challenges the orthodoxy of life stage development. She firmly believes that, if we are open to opportunity, we can discover untapped potentials within ourselves and continue to grow and develop into the elder life stage.

Di’s husband Martin had been ill for some time and died in May 2018.  She was by his side during his final days in palliative care, remaining present for his transition.  Times of sorrow and perplexity, vision and inspiration, transition and passing are all part of our universal journey.  Death teaches us about the impermanent nature of all things. 

Di gives talks on Elder Life Stage Transition and other topics.  I have attended quite a few and read much of her work.  She now devotes herself to writing and is an accomplished author.