Claiming Your Place at the Fire: Living the Second Half of Your Life on Purpose [Paperback]

Richard Leider (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 9, 2004

More than 10,000 people turn 50 every day in the U.S.; how do they handle this shift? Claiming Your Place at the Fire invites this group of "new elders" to ask four key questions: Who am I? New elders synthesize and transfer the wisdom of the past into the present. Where do I belong? They have a powerful sense of where they have come from, where they are, and where they are going. How do I bring my passions alive? They rejoice in rediscovering their life's work, their calling, their vocation. What is my life's purpose? Freed from imposed schedules and demands, new elders now find the freedom to create their lives anew. This timely book describes how new older adults can rekindle the good life, relight the fire within, and share that warmth and light with others.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

If you’ve just received your AARP membership card and wonder what comes next, you might find some help from Leider and Shapiro, co-authors of Repacking Your Bags. They put it a bit more lyrically, using their fire image: this book is for "people who are ready to stoke the wisdom gained in the first half of their lives to burn with a brighter sense of purpose in the second half." Drawing on what Leider learned while sitting around the fire with tribal elders in Tanzania, he refers to his readers as "new elders," meaning people "who never stop reinventing themselves." This isn’t a self-help book, exactly: it doesn’t offer advice on activities for elders or where to retire. It is a guide to an internal, spiritual search for the purpose of one’s older years. Readers who don’t mind the New Age-y tone and the references to Ram Dass and dream interpretation as a source of wisdom may find inspiration here for answering the central questions that can guide them to a fulfilling elder life.
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Review

"A must-read for anyone entering the second half of life. Masterpiece providing the necessary wisdom to help age successfully." -- Jeffry S. Life, M.D., Ph.D. Institute Physician, Cenegenics Medical Institute

"Claiming your Place At the Fire is thoughtful, warm, helpful, and above all else, wise." -- Alan M. Webber, founding editor, Fast Company magazine

"Once again Richard and David have their finger on the pulse of purpose and that has always been their gift." -- Marshall Goldsmith, America's preeminent executive coach and founding director of the Alliance For Strategic Leadership

"This is a book that will comfort anyone afraid of growing old. It sheds new light on vital aging." -- Walter F. Mondale, Former Vice President, Senator and Ambassador

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (September 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576752976
• ISBN-13: 978-1576752975
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #339,942 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grow Alive Instead of Old, January 24, 2005

By 

Artist Barbara Garro (Barbara Garro at http://www.ElectricEnvisions.com in Saratoga Springs, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Claiming Your Place at the Fire: Living the Second Half of Your Life on Purpose (Paperback)

You can grow old in the darkness of night or grow alive in the light of your sun--your choice. Richard J. Leider and David A. Shapiro take you by the hand and help you see how to let go of the things that don't bring you alive and replace them with things that do. Can it really be that simple? You decide.

CLAIMING YOUR PLACE AT THE FIRE lets you see how to believe that every second of human life is valuable. And, oh how our needy world needs the best of every single one of us. If you can answer a telephone and speak, you can volunteer for a prayer line where people call for comfort in times of turmoil and are so grateful when they get a live person.

When you are tempted to give in to your aches and pains, do remember Stephen Hawking, our modern day Einstein confined to a wheel chair, who had a body that was unable to respond to him. So, he used to the fullest what was able to respond to him, his mind, and blessed the entire universe with his wisdom.

Best of all, CLAIMING YOUR PLACE AT THE FIRE makes you feel warm and comfortable about walking your path instead of so afraid of what will happen to you.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Step Up .. It's Time and Here's HOW, November 19, 2007

By 

J. L. Booth "net500cg" (West Lafayette, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Claiming Your Place at the Fire: Living the Second Half of Your Life on Purpose (Paperback)

If you've 'tripped over the human 50-yard line' ... then this book is definitely for you. I personally wish I would have been wise enough to understand it's deeper meanings 20 years ago - but that would not have happened. The words and wisdom of this book are just not for the younger years. But as the book shows, it is our - those of us who now find ourselves, by age and experience, at the edge of the fire - responsibility to pass on - as mentors - to the younger generation the most important piece of advice they can get: "You will one day be here, prepare now."

A must read for every man and woman over 50 years of age. This is a guide book for

+ WHY you should look forward to living past 50,
+ What you should have been doing before you got here
+ How to make the most of your Life Learnings
+ Where you are now and in the remaining years of your life
+ Who your focus will be on from now on: giving of your Life Learnings to the younger generation

This is what those 'hot-dog roasting fires' were meant to be! Go read the book. Then go build a fire and roast some hot-dogs, make some smoores and gather your friends to enjoy. The rest will come as the embers begin to glow. So will you.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought Provoking, February 11, 2008

By 

Steven L. Dornbusch (Minneapolis) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Claiming Your Place at the Fire: Living the Second Half of Your Life on Purpose (Paperback)

To retire or refire? What does the future hold? "Claiming Your Place at the Fire" helps us ask the right questions as we try to make sense out of and find meaning in the second half of our lives. It is full of insight on how to do that in a way that makes sense for a variety of people in all sorts of situations. It was very helpful to me as I weigh the options in my life and work. Thought provoking and conversation starting.