Without shying away from any of the pitfalls and challenges, the authors have communicated how rich a blessing it is to grow to an age where others may see us old but we feel vital in so many different ways. We have all been told to prepare well in advance for aging. Not to worry. Read Wise Aging, and you will be fully prepared.
- Blu Greenberg, author of How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household
This is a book I want to give to everyone I love. It’s like a series of intimate sessions with two astute and tender guides, who can lead you from confusion and foreboding about aging to opening your arms to possibility.
- Sara Davidson, author of The December Project, a Jewish Book Award Finalist; and Loose Change
Wise Aging opens us to the possibility that we may become more as we age: more heartfelt, more connected, more forgiving and more present to the joys of being alive. A fine book to read if you are considering growing old.
- Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, author of Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather’s Blessing
Read Wise Aging and drink in the greatest Jewish wisdom about later life. It hasn’t disappeared. The wisdom is more alive than ever in the pages of this book.
- Harry R. Moody, PhD, Vice President of AARP (retired), author of The Five Stages of the Soul
This wonderfully straightforward, intelligent invitation to age wisely is rousing and inspiring at the same time that it is consoling and comforting.
- Sylvia Boorstein, PhD, author of Happiness Is an Inside Job
Wise Aging, is an essential guide that casts aging not as a “thing” that happens to us but as a developmental process in which we are full participants. The gifts of age are abundant and they are waiting for us. Cowan and Thal distill this great fount of aging knowledge and research into a journey that each one of us can take.
- Marc E. Agronin, MD, author of How We Age: A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Growing Old
Wise Aging represents a sea change in the way we approach the opportunities for spiritual meaning and growth as we grow older…[A] truly inspiring approach to gaining wisdom as we age.
- Rabbi Angela W. Buchdahl, Senior Rabbi, Central Synagogue, New York City
In Wise Aging, Cowan and Thal show us how to do this important “new work” of our later years – weaving threads of experience into something meaningful and whole – and ways to do that work both alone and together!
- Center for Courage & Renewal
For those of us in need of a serious conversation about aging, this book is a godsend. Cowan and Thal provide a thorough and personal report from the field, covering all aspects of this poignant territory – body, heart, mind, and spirit. This book is the best help so far for taking on aging and dying as a conscious practice.
- Normal Fischer, poet and Zen priest, author of Training in Compassion
Once in a while a book comes along that challenges us to understand ourselves in new ways. We are transformed by it, and because of it we are inspired to transform our communities as well. Wise Aging is that book.
- Rabbi Laura Geller, Senior Rabbi, Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills
Wise Aging not only brings wisdom to the challenge and opportunities of aging, but through its exercises open ways for people to explore where they have been in life and how they still might shape their future.
- Rabbi Michael Strassfeld, author of A Book of Life
Wise Aging is a must for anyone who wants to move through the next life stage with a deeper sense of meaning, identity, spirituality, and relationships.
- Helen Dennis, coauthor of Project Renewment
With fierce intelligence, the authors of Wise Aging help us face up to the reality that we are getting older and yet still celebrate the fact with new challenges and new victories. None of this is easy, but this book is easy reading as we face the hard task of maturing and finding our own spirits.
- Rabbi William Cutter, PhD, Hebrew Union College
