Maybe it's my age, but I've been having more and more conversations lately with friends and colleagues who have retired, are retiring or at least thinking about retiring. I've recently become aware of a series of three books by Ed Zinkiewicz:
- Retire to Play and Purpose: How to have an amazing time going forward
- Retire to Great Friendships: How to grow your network of friends and support
- Retire to a Better You: How to remain able for the rest of your life.
I like the author's take on the present and the future by his emphasis on "retiring to" rather than "retiring from." Taken together these books tackle the spiritual issues of aging: meaning and purpose, connectedness, and living in a physical, sometimes declining, body. They offer tips on what not to do and what to do as you begin retirement, giving practical pointers on issues to tackle at the beginning, including dealing with finances, determining what is important to you and how to craft a schedule that helps you live according to your goals. All of these books are based on setting SMART goals. Smart goals contain 1) Specific objectives, and 2) are Measurable, 3) Attainable, 4) Relevant and 5) Time-bound. The author, retired from a career in business management and software development, has started Retirement-U to offer training and resources for the nearly or newly retired. The books are available on Amazon, both in paperback and as e-books (and right now the e-books are free). You can see detailed descriptions of each on the author's
website. I recommend them, particularly for those who are in the floundering stage of retirement!
Resources for Thinking about Alzheimer's Disease
There are a multiplicity of articles and resources about Alzheimer's disease appearing almost daily on the web. Here are some that I think are particularly noteworthy. -
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"Making Sense of Alzheimer's" is a website that is amalgam of opinion and reflection pieces, reviews, interviews and art about the experience of Alzheimer's disease. It also has a time-line of the history of Alzheimer's.
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Journal Issues Focused on Aging
Reflections, a journal from Yale Divinity School seeks to bring theological insight to a contemporary social, political or religious question. The theme for the Fall 2013, issue is "Test of Time: The Art of Aging" and includes essays, personal reflections, poetry, prayers, and interviews. I particularly enjoyed, "Counting the Years with Desert Fathers and Mothers" by Roberta Bondi; "The Journey of Life: An Interview with Thomas Cole," which ended with the sentence, "We need to undertake the impossible work of linking physical decline and spiritual growth."; and "Facing Finitude" by Teresa Berger. All the articles in this issue can be found on-line here.
CONVERsations: a Forum for Authentic Transformation, is a twice
a year journal published by Richmont Graduate University that "provides spiritual accompaniment and honest dialogue for those who long for radical transformation in Christ." Their most recent issue, "Wisdom & Aging" is a rich resource for those whose aging occurs in the Christian tradition. Chock full of interviews, poetry, articles on spiritual companionship, spiritual practices and exercises this could serve as a fruitful starting point for individual and group reflection. Print and downloadable issues are available here.
he losses we have faced. But this is more than an individual task of recognition; it is a communal one. The stone piles along the highway were created by community members to mourn the death of someone they knew and loved and missed.
