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Tag Archives: loss
Standing Ovation
Living in community means being sensitive to each other’s struggles, acknowledging, sympathizing, and encouraging someone who is having a hard time. Last week, a member of our house (who I’ll call Ed) was involved in a tragedy, and it’s affected … Continue reading
Lessons in Loss from Brooks and Beethoven
My most recent post on this blog described an article by Arthur C. Brooks in The Atlantic titled “Your Professional Decline Is Coming Sooner Than You Think.” In it he described research demonstrating that fluid intelligence declines after midlife. Due … Continue reading
The Seven Deadly Sins for Seniors: Sloth
This is the third post in a series about the seven deadly sins. I have been reading and discussing with a church men’s group a book on the topic, Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their … Continue reading
Posted in Spirit
Tagged acedia, aging, capital vices, Christianity, despair, Kathleen Norris, loss, Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, self
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Relocating to a Retirement Community: “Settling In”
I recently read Richard Morgan’s 2006 book Settling In: My First Year in a Retirement Community. At age 74, Morgan, a retired Presbyterian minister, moved from Morgantown, North Carolina to a retirement community in Western Pennsylvania. He and his wife … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Relationships, Resources
Tagged aging, elderly, living arrangements, loss, older adults, regret, relocating, retirement communities
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Bloom Anyway
This spring, I planted sunflower seeds in my mom’s yard. I planted them in three places: in the backyard, alongside the driveway, and in a mostly-fenced garden area. The seedlings soon pushed their heads out of the dirt, then grew … Continue reading
Posted in Psyche, Spirit
Tagged aging, elderly, gardening, loss, older adults, sunflowers
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Life Changes Fast–Dealing With Sudden Bereavement
“Life Changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.” So starts Joan Didion’s memoir The Year of Magical Thinking. She’s alluding to her husband John’s death from a massive heart attack … Continue reading
“45 Years” and Past Selves
I caught a showing of the movie 45 Years over the weekend. A couple–Kate (Charlotte Rampling) and Geoff (Tom Courtenay)–are preparing to celebrate 45 years of marriage when a letter related to Geoff’s past threatens to derail their relationship. The letter … Continue reading
Posted in Psyche, Relationships, Uncategorized
Tagged aging, alternate selves, loss, marriage, movies, older adults, self, self-awareness
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Physical Simplification, Part 3: Disability
I’ve been writing recently about physical simplification–the process of accepting and affirming rather than rejecting or resisting the physical changes that occur in us as we age. I wrote first about accepting changes in appearance, then about accepting changes in physical … Continue reading
Posted in Body, Spirit
Tagged acceptance, aging, elderly, faith, Lewis Joseph Sherrill, loss, older adults
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Loss and Simplification in Later Adulthood
In my last post, I introduced the idea that the main psychological task of late life is to mourn our losses. I ended by suggesting that such grieving does not mean that we older adults are constantly in a state … Continue reading
Posted in Psyche
Tagged blessing, grief, growth, Lewis Joseph Sherrill, loss, Ronald Rolheiser
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What is the Primary Psychological Task of Late Adulthood?
Psychologists usually view human development as consisting of a series of tasks or issues, each of which must be dealt with in turn. Thus infancy is about learning to trust, adolescence about independence and identity, and early adulthood about intimacy. … Continue reading
Posted in Psyche
Tagged adulthood, aging, ego integrity, elderly, Erik Erikson, lifespan development, loss, older adults, Ronald Rolheiser
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Beyond Halfway 