Book Review by Cathi Close-Arlington, VA
Awakening at Mid-life , A Guide to Reviving Your Spirit, Recreating Your Life, and Returning to Your Truest Self. by Kathleen A. Brehony. Riverhead Books, NY. $14.
Kathleen Brehony, a Jungian psychologist, guides us toward an honest exploration of an important time and passage in our lives-mid-life. She brings to light an interesting fact that in our culture, so much attention is paid to the areas of child and adolescent development, but so little to adult development once we are "grown up".
At mid-life we are at the beginning of the second half of our lives. What does this mean? What can we expect? What should we expect? Are our choices simply to learn to "grow old gracefully" or should we invest our efforts into trying to look and feel "young"?
Brehony approaches this transitional time in a way that lends dignity and respect to this deeply human experience; the hopes, the fears, the disappointments, and most important, the opportunity for spiritual growth.
In a culture that increasingly devalues the merits of age and wisdom, this is a book that does much to reinforce the purposeful plan that our Creator implemented. This book provides needed internal nourishment, encourages reflection and renewal and challenges us to make this time of our lives one that is both meaningful and fulfilling.
In the concluding chapter of her book, Brehony writes, "The metamorphosis which will allow us to live fully and celebrate each morning is available to each and every one of us as part of our human endowment. We need not have any special abilities or knowledge to begin the journey, just a willingness to look inside and to open ourselves to our potential .... For the mid-life journey is not simply about aging or making changes in our outer life. It is about the discovery of personal meaning in one’s inner life. It is about the recognition of the sacred in everyday experience. It is about understanding that while we are just a grain of sand in the great flow of time, we are, each of us, unique and necessary to the fulfillment of some cosmic plan."