Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Sheed & Ward
Pages: 176
Trim: 5¾ x 8¾
978-1-5381-9337-2 • Hardback • October 2024 • $30.00 • (£25.00)
978-1-5381-9338-9 • eBook • October 2024 • $28.50 • (£19.99)
Valerie Schultz is a freelance writer, journalist, columnist for The Bakersfield Californian, and a contributing writer to the Jesuit publication America and the daily prayer book Give Us This Day. Her essays and short stories have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune, as well as in Catholic publications such as US Catholic, Commonweal, Human Development, and The National Catholic Reporter. Her books include Closer: Musings on Intimacy, Marriage, and God (2008), Overdue: A Dewey Decimal System of Grace (2019) and A Hill of Beans: The Grace of Everyday Troubles (2021).
Chapter 1: Aging in the Generations Before Us
Chapter 2: Lessons of Mortality
Chapter 3: Incorrect Adages
Chapter 4: Parallels of Babyhood and Old Age
Chapter 5: The Politics of Aging
Chapter 6: Some Physical and Mental Realities of Aging
Chapter 7: Balancing Outrage and Acceptance
Chapter 8: In Praise of Invisible Women
Chapter 9: Circling to Land
Chapter 10: Generativity and Integrity
Chapter 11: The Stuff We Leave
Chapter 12: The Afterlife
Afterword
Index
About the Author
This is a wonderful book, a book to be savored, and I have urged my friends to buy and read it. At times it feels like a personal journal, and at other times like a deep conversation between good friends. It is full of wisdom on subjects that matter most.
— Richard P. Olson, author of The Grandparent Vocation: Wisdom, Legacies, and Spiritual Growth
Valerie Schultz's gem of a book sets out to answer the question: "What are we going to do with the time we have left?" She shares her personal struggles with us while pointing the way to "go down swinging." Equally wise and funny, this is an upbeat contribution to the growing conscious aging library.
— Carol Orsborn, author of Spiritual Aging: Weekly Reflections for Embracing Life
Valerie Schultz encourages us to embrace the messy, sometimes delightful, sometimes difficult journey that is aging, leaning on a sturdy sense of humor and wise grace as she shares her own challenges and joys.
— Michelle Francl-Donnay, author of Prayer: Biblical Wisdom for Seeking God
- Offers a wise, compassionate, and humorous take on growing older
- Inspires readers to confront their fears and anxieties of physical decline and unrealized dreams—to choose generativity and integration over stagnation and despair
- Provides a boomer-centric viewpoint of life past retirement