Winter's Graces - by Susan Avery Stewart (Paperback)

About the Book

A heartening and engaging guide to the surprising gifts of later life, based on ancient stories, recent research, elder's lived experience, the world's spiritual traditions, and the author's thirty-plus years as a psychology professor and psychotherapist.

Book Synopsis

Filled with unexpected good news about growing older, Winter's Graces highlights eleven qualities that ripen with age--including audacious authenticity, creative ingenuity, necessary fierceness, self-transcending generosity, and a growing capacity to savor life and to ride its ups and downs with humor and grace. Decades of research have established that the catastrophic conditions often associated with late life, such as severe dementia and debilitating frailty, are the exception, not the rule. Still, the mistaken idea that aging equals devastating decline persists, causing enormous and unnecessary suffering, especially for women. Drawing on decades of experience as a psychology professor and psychotherapist, Susan Stewart, PhD, weaves together inspiring folk stories that illustrate the graces of winter and recent research that validates them, along with a wealth of user-friendly tools and practices for amplifying these graces and bringing them to life. Written primarily for women over 50 seeking good news about growing older, Winter's Graces offers adults of all ages a compelling vision of aging that celebrates its many gifts, acknowledges its challenges, and reveals how the last season of life can be the most fulfilling of all.

Review Quotes

"In her thoughtful, inspirational look at aging, Stewart, an educator and therapist, uses folklore and professional insights to explore the 11 graces that bring fulfillment to our later years. . . . This beautifully written treatment of aging is suitable for both private contemplation and small study groups." --Booklist "A joyous, optimistic addition to works about aging." --Library Journal "Stewart reveals eleven gifts that reach their fullest expression when we become elders . . . this book gives tips and tools for cultivating positive attitudes and health-promoting behaviors that can lead to elder years marked by engagement, adventure, service--and yes, passion." --Foreword Reviews "A compelling, poignant, and necessary rebuttal to a culture that devalues people as they age. Dr. Stewart reveals the untapped resources of our human family through a framework rooted in science and ancient wisdom that helps us intentionally embrace the cycles of nature, and one another." --Dr. Kristen Lee, Lead Faculty, Behavioral Science, Northeastern University, Boston, and author of Mentalligence: A New Psychology of Thinking "Dr. Susan Stewart has indeed followed her own instincts and inner wisdom in gathering stories that illustrate the meaning and value of our lives as we move toward adult maturation. She has thoughtfully organized this gentle book in approachable steps that encourage reflection, imagination, and acceptance." --Penelope Tarasuk, PhD, IAAP Jungian psychoanalyst and author of Polishing the Bones "Winter's Graces comes to us in an era that requires more grace than most of us can muster. Though written for women in or approaching the winter of their lives, it speaks as truly for us codgers as well. Among the gifts this work has to offer is the experience of the author's voice: at once gentle and wise, tentative and sure, and above all deeply human." --James A. Wiley, Professor, Institute of Health Policy Research, UCSF School of Medicine "Susan Stewart guides her readers through the thorny thicket of aging in America to a quiet clearing where misconceptions are peeled away, and our fears are not denied, but embraced. We're led with gentle hands through contemporary science and solid cross-cultural, age-old traditions that help to re-awaken our own forgotten memories and understandings of the richness and value of each season of life. With the skill of an alchemist, Susan invites us to explore eleven qualities that ripen in later life and can transform the leaden fear of aging into a grateful recognition that the 'golden years' are indeed gold. This book is to be read and then reread, one chapter at a time, whenever we need an infusion of audacity, contentment, or courage." --Jackie Cato, bi-lingual teacher "Dr. Susan Stewart's work has inspired me to watch for and to celebrate the many wonderful gifts and graces that come with the process of aging. Our society is prone to seeing the 'disadvantages' of age. What a joy it is to focus rather on the many reasons to embrace aging in light of the continuing development and deepening of the human being in later life." --The Rev. Jeannette Myers, Episcopal priest "In this wise volume, Susan Stewart offers a compelling vision of what aging can be, not only for women, but for us all. In particular, the eleven qualities she dubs as 'the Graces of Winter' articulate a profound depth-psychological model, rooted both in contemporary cutting-edge research and ancient wisdom." --David Van Nuys, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Psychology and creator/host of the Shrink Rap Radio podcast "At last--a glorious look at the gifts of aging! Winter's Graces takes readers on a magnificent journey through the later years, in all their joy and fullness." --Mary Ann Clark, RN, retired "Winter's Graces is full of grace. For me, reading it was like opening a treasure box and discovering that a time of life I was anticipating with some dread is actually rich in beauty and many other blessings. I envision groups of women coming together to receive its reassuring wisdom and to be awakened to the inviting possibilities that age has to offer." --Margaret Potts, retired teacher "Dr. Susan Stewart's book is a gift to all of us who are making the transition to late adulthood. Written in a beautiful, moving, personal, and descriptive style, her work is inspiring, healing, and filled with timeless wisdom. Susan's writing has reaffirmed that I am not alone with the challenges that I am facing in the second half of life, and has given me the courage and perspective to forge onward with a renewed optimism about life and all that it has to teach me." --David F. Sowerby, PhD, adjunct faculty member, Sonoma State, Sofia, and Dominican Universities