BOOK REVIEW: The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully

By Joan Chittister 
BlueBridge, 2008, $19.95 

For age is opportunity no less / Than youth itself, though in another dress. 

Joan Chittister quotes Longfellow's observation at the beginning a chapter titled "Mystery" in her new book,The Gift of Years. Mystery? Opportunity? In old age? Yes, says Chittister. And more than that, old age is the start of a series of new beginnings and an invitation to come alive in ways we never dreamed of before. 

Chittister is a Benedictine nun, international lecturer, and author of more than 30 books. For the last 12 years she has served as prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania, and is currently executive director of Benetvision, a resource center for contemporary spirituality from a feminist and global perspective. 

Old age is a gift, writes Chittister, who herself is "facing the time of life when there is no career plan." Death can catch us by surprise at any age, but the achievement of age is wasted when it's treated as a simple linear process from birth to middle to death. The true blessing of time is that it can bring an "awareness that there is a purpose to ageing," a coming home to the self and a discovery of significance in a life that is so often stuffed full of busyness. 

With short chapters on the spiritual dimensions of such topics as "Solitude," "Sadness," and Forgiveness" - each richly furnished with the reflections of elders like Emily Dickenson, Lowell Thomas, and Katharine Hepburn - Chittister's book assures us that, yes, the resources of age can lead to a consequential evaluation of the nature and meaning of life.