Category Archives: Psyche

Spiritual Journeys

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Bob Ritzema

Soul Searchers: An Anthology of Spiritual Journeys (Eerdmans, 2002), complied by freelance editor Teresa de Bertodano, is a collection of biographical, autobiographical or fictional accounts of life events that convey something of who each person was or was called to be. … Continue reading →

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A Five-Sentence Life Story

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Bob Ritzema

I wrote recently about the benefits of life review. Since I left full-time work in the summer of 2012, I have been thinking more about my past, that that seems to be leading to a time of life review for me. … Continue reading →

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On Being Old Enough to Have a Stress-Free Christmas

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Bob Ritzema

Lynne Hybels, who ministers on behalf of third-world communities and is married to megachurch pastor Bill Hybels, recently wrote an article for the her.meneutics site at Christianity Today describing the progressively more laid-back, less frantic approach she has taken to … Continue reading →

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Hi, I’m Bob and I’m Redeployed

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Bob Ritzema

Recently, as part of a series of posts about leisure and retirement, I relayed that today’s older adults are less likely than those in the previous generation or two to quit working entirely, and those who do quit working or switch to … Continue reading →

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Life Review

Posted on December 7, 2013 by Bob Ritzema

A while ago, there was an interesting post on the Changing Aging blog on the topic of memoir and life review.  The author, Gaea Yudron, the director of Sage’s Play, an organization that promotes successful aging, wrote. “As we grow older, we … Continue reading →

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If We No Longer Retire, What Will We Do When We Get Old?

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Bob Ritzema

I’ve been writing about retirement and leisure.  First, I considered the fact that the majority of older workers don’t have the money to permit them to totally leave the workforce.  I then looked at the history of retirement, discovering that … Continue reading →

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Meeting Our Parents, Again

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Bob Ritzema

Jan Wilberg, blogging at Red’s Wrap, wrote a beautiful post recently in which she imagines traveling back in time and meeting her parents before they became her parents. She then performs a sort of time travel by reflecting on a … Continue reading →

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The History of Retirement

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Bob Ritzema

In an earlier post, I discussed the failure of most workers in the US to save for retirement, with the result that many will continue working longer than the previous generation of older adults.  To put this change regarding the timing of … Continue reading →

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Reinvention or Renewal

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Bob Ritzema

I read quite a few blog posts having to do with older adulthood.  Several months ago, I started noticing that, among posts giving advice about how to age successfully, one frequent theme was self-reinvention.  Such advice is often given to … Continue reading →

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The Blessings of Old Age

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Bob Ritzema

Sister Joan Chittister has  written recently about the blessings of aging.  There are losses that occur with aging, but there are also gains.  Our youth-oriented society focuses mostly on the losses; thankfully, writers like Sister Chittister and Bill Thomas remind … Continue reading →

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