There are many challenges to growing older. Aside from the obvious physical aspects of a slowing metabolism, losing muscle and physical coordination, and brain damage there are the challenges of dying loved ones, feeling invisible, social ostracization, and financial worries. Robert L. Weber, Ph.D. and and Carol Orsborn, Ph.D. have written a profoundly cogent exploration of mature spirituality in an effort to make the challenges of aging more easily faced.

They succeeded.

Carol Osborn, Ph.D. is the founder of the site "Fierce with Age, the Digest of Boomer Wisdom, Inspiration, and Spirituality" and has written more than 25 books. Robert Weber, Ph.D. is a former Jesuit and is an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School. Together they have created 25 thought provoking questions to explore the many issues of aging in a way that allows the reader to use her own experiences to create a deeper spirituality. I especially appreciated how they did not try to make every aspect positive, encouraging the reader to look at past difficulties. They do urge us to reframe negativity and invite us to honor our personal courage and strengths.

At a time when growing older can feel like a burden, a situation full of heartbreak and sorrow, The Spirituality of Age invites us to expand our spirituality and in doing so, find meaning and purpose once again.

Highly recommended.

~review by Lisa Mc Sherry

Authors: Robert Weber, Ph.D. and Carol Orsbourn, Ph.D
Park Street Press, 2015
pp. 256, $14.95

34.643MBMemory Usage903msRequest Duration
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