Making the Most of the New Year in Older Years: Excerpt from Award-Winning Book, Women, We're Only Old Once (Cooper)

 


The following is an excerpt from the award-winning book, Women. We're Only Old Once (Bertha Cooper) that seems particularly appropriate as the new year begins: 

I have been frankly humbled by this experience of entering the last phase of my life. I, so far, have humble thoughts, the most important include being honest about my grief and, in the end, letting go of it. I try to honor the important losses of friends, accept the devaluation of my work, shrug off the newest arthritic finger bump, and pay attention to new thoughts and aspirations that never before had room in my life.

Quite important, as you will see in later chapters, I encourage investment in well-being. Among my hopes in sharing this journey with you is that we will honor our bodies, which are changing daily, by taking care of them and will cherish our remaining relationships. We can anticipate that new thoughts and aspirations will begin entering from unexpected places as we clear out denial and grieving. Welcoming new thoughts along with letting go of old ones are important tasks of aging. It’s right next to trying, and occasionally succeeding, in living out each moment of today.

The Awakening

We begin our journey by recalling and piecing together our own story. We already know how to transition from one stage of life to another, to evolve, to cope with losses—and we each learn to navigate the aging terrain in our own way. We succeed the most when we recognize that we are in a whirlwind of bold impermanence and breathe with it instead of holding our breaths. Aging is a lifelong journey, one that will end someday. In the meantime, we keep on learning and living each instance of our life differently from all the other instances. This is an age of discovery like none other when we realize that in letting go, we make room for so much more.

“It’s a mystery. I am getting smarter! My mind is on fire to learn,” said one of the women I interviewed.

Our own life teaches us that we know how to let go without fear. We have been moving forward, then a little backward, and then forward again for years.

Knowing the Path to Who We Are Becoming

The path to successful aging begins with embracing our own life story. 


Women, We're Only Old Once has won the following awards:

Phoenix Award for Best New Voice in Health and Fitness 2021

Best Indie Books Award 2021



For more posts by and about Bertha Cooper and her books, click HERE.

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