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Green Leaves for Later Years
ebook
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- Length: 183 pages
- Published: August 02, 2012
- Imprint: IVP Formatio
- Item Code: 6337
- ISBN: 9780830863372
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paperback
"What wisdom do I bring to the later years? Nothing more than the wisdom of dwelling in the present moment. No more than the courage of God's promises. Nothing more than the courage to walk through sorrow. No more than the unlimited future of God's love."
So, Emilie Griffin, author, teacher, spiritual director, writes in her seventy-fifth year. In these pages she reflects on the beauty and the difficulty of aging. Pain mingles with gratitude. With her we learn again how to draw close to the Lord who longs to guide us through.
Ideal for both individuals and discussion groups, each chapter ends with reflection questions and a prayer. Discover a spirituality that will sustain you in the later years.
"Emilie Griffin writes grittily, wittily and transparently. Her green leaves are Edenic, not the result of naiveté but of continued growth despite physical impediments. For Emilie, pain and transcendence live in the same body. Her challenge, like that of others who have lived a long time, comes from not knowing exactly what lies ahead--life as a kind of open-ended novel, the character still in development, the plot not yet tied off neatly--yet a life for which God has an ongoing purpose. Emilie lives out that challenge, that purpose, in this story of amazing grace and faithfulness."
"Part poet, part spiritual director and at least a small part sly humorist, Emilie Griffin is the perfect person to write about how we can draw from Christian faith and wisdom through the journey of life, especially during the later years. The pages turn easily and her wisdom spills out."
"This book is an honest, hopeful word of encouragement. Emilie Griffin makes it abundantly clear that our later years can be a time of creative adventure. We can discover the that friends and gratitude, courage and trust, are truly gifts of God's grace moving us beyond our loss and failure, anxiety and illness. This has been Emilie Griffin's personal experience. She has transcended the constant, crippling pain of rheumatoid arthritis by letting go, being flooded with gratitude, trusting our Heavenly Father anew. Consequently, with a host of others, I have been personally nourished by her. Take and read."
"Readers of Emilie Griffin's previous meditations on life changes and aging in Homeward Voyage and Souls in Full Sail will welcome her ever-deepening explorations in Green Leaves for Later Years. Whether reflecting on her own life or relating stories from the lives of figures as diverse as Nelson Mandela, Ruth Bell Graham, Auguste Renoir and others, she challenges us to see aging as a discipline of attention offering a richness of experience and joy generally unimagined in our youth-obsessed culture. Emilie Griffin has become a wise woman; her books are twenty-first-century wisdom literature."
"The volume, like life itself, is a pastiche of experiences, some good and some bad, but all sustained by faith and good humor. Each chapter is more an exhortatory homily than an essay, each packed with real life examples, each followed by questions to stimulate reflection and a prayer."
"This book is ideal for both individuals and discussion groups; each chapter ends with reflection questions and a prayer. Griffin addresses key questions like how we deal with the losses of our later years through illness and death, and she encourages readers to look at the opportunities open to us in later years. Discover a spirituality that will sustain you in the later years in Green Leaves for Later Years."
"This thoughtful book, part memoir, part handbook, explores the slipping away of the years leading us to discover . . . that our future is limitless. Anyone who sees life in general, and the spiritual life in particular, as journey, will appreciate the flow of this little book as the author weaves personal anecdote, insight from scripture, historical biography, and well-earned wisdom into a hope-filled, joyful anticipation of the later years."
CONTENTS
Preface
1. Pushing Past the Pain
2. Blue Skies, Gray Skies: Questions without Answers
3. Stretching Toward Happiness
4. Grief, Loss, Anger: Taking the Next Step
5. The Sustaining Grace of Friends
6. Re-Setting Goals and Picking Up the Pieces
7. Age: What's New About It?
8. Following Christ: Where the Good Way Lies
9. Forever: Just Over There
Appendix: Writing Your Spiritual Autobiography
