Don't Call Me Old-I'm Just Awakening!: Spiritual Encouragement for Later Life [Paperback]

Marsha Sinetar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2002

A life-affirming work celebrating spiritual maturity and awakening. In this wise and gentle guide to the spiritual work of aging, best selling author Marsha Sinetar introduces us to Bo and Em, two radically different spiritual and mature women who discuss the true work of aging well. In a series of letters between these two soul friends, Sinetar examines the practical aspects as well as the challenges and joys of spiritual awakening as the prime task and joy of elderhood.

Originally intended as research for gerontologists and healthcare workers, Sinetar's work evolved into "spiritual hardiness," a crucial component in successful aging. Don't Call Me Old, I'm Just Awakening! explores the following themes of successful aging:

· why engaged elders develop their attitudes earlier in life--for instance, as they handle obstacles or conceive of aging in the first place. · why authentic involvements produce a hopeful, ageless vitality, and · why fulfilling, transpersonal activities promote the will to endure and to grow beyond the common losses, pains or seeming frailties of advanced age.

Sinetar also offers practical ideas and solutions for eldercare, including end of life care (and all the negotiations that accompany that); family guidance (especially intervening for the frail or elderly should conflicts arise); and nursing homes or hospital visits (particularly if someone is recuperating slowly or does not have family).

This much-needed book will be welcomed and embraced by mature women and men of all faiths and occupations engaged in spiritual work as well as baby boomers seeking to understand not only their parents' eldercare issues, but what they themselves will be facing. Finally, this book is for mature individuals who can help lead us into spiritual awakening as a part of our aging process.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Best known for Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow, pioneering author Sinetar once again helps define the leading edge of discourse, taking up what will likely become a social, and therefore publishing, preoccupation good aging as a boomer wave of millions begins arriving on the shores of later life. Using an exchange of letters between two imaginary friends who are "types" (one executive, the other mystic), Sinetar offers a menu of socio-spiritual analysis and prescription that's half application, half contemplation. She draws on a wide range of statistics, examples and authors, from senior activist Art Linkletter to psychologist Abraham Maslow to Christian Scientist Martha Wilcox. This eclectic blend of findings and concepts into an easy-to-read whole is a Sinetar specialty, marking her career as a writer and corporate consultant. Her simplicity is deeper than it looks, rooted in the early 20th-century post-Transcendental American movement called "New Thought," which is one antecedent of creative visualization and the prosperity gospel. But it also embraces Jesus, albeit somewhat selectively, and classic Christian mysticism. While the dialogue-in-letters conceit is successful, an appendix with "study questions" seems formulaic, its function not clearly stated. With characteristic and persuasive enthusiasm, Sinetar poses for popular understanding questions no policy-maker or aging American will be able to duck during the next 25 years.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

A book with a sound message for us all. -- The Catholic Weekly (Australia)

This book should be read using the extensive resources as a guide for journaling, conversation, and reading group discussion. -- ForeWord

This eclectic blend of findings and concepts into an easy-to-read whole is a Sinetar specialty. -- Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Paulist Press (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809140977
• ISBN-13: 978-0809140978
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,152,372 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Call Me Old, I'm Just Awakening!, January 11, 2003

By 

Susan Davis Browne (Washington State, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Call Me Old-I'm Just Awakening!: Spiritual Encouragement for Later Life (Paperback)

Focusing on advice and inspiration for mid-life and beyond, Marsha Sinetar's latest book is a winner. She takes a whimsical new approach, exploring how to live a spirit-filled life through a correspondence between two lively, intellectually curious longtime friends.
The two friends discuss their contrasting viewpoints: one, which should be familiar to Sinetar's fans, looks at a prayerful life, while the other friend has a more secular style. But Sinetar ultimately shows readers how they can age well, with humor and an open heart. "Don't Call Me Old" is a charming, quick read, but a book readers will want to revisit again and again.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Feel optimistic about growing old!, September 28, 2002

By 

Virginia Waltemyer (Northern CA, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Call Me Old-I'm Just Awakening!: Spiritual Encouragement for Later Life (Paperback)

This book is written in a very enjoyable format. Thru the exchange of a series of letters between 2 old friends, we connect with the woes-but ultimately the joys-of growing old. Together the 2 friends form an "encouragement team" to encourage each other to "keep on keepin' on"....always learning, always growing, staying connected.

The author reminds us that so many older adults feel useless because they have LEARNED to believe this about themselves. They believe they are powerless. But it is possible to UN-learn these unhelpful beliefs. This book is packed full of optimistic quotes and insights to urge us all to awaken to the joy and beauty of later life and to celebrate the aging process.

I don't know the publishing/literary terms to use, but when i held this book in my hands and opened it, it's one of those books that shouted "read me!" I appreciate the large type and bigger spaces between the lines.