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Souls in Full Sail
Ebook
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2011 Christianity Today Book Award Winner
"We do not set out to become old. Far from it. We hardly intend even to become middle-aged. Instead we plan to live in some eternal now which will lead on to something better, something more complete than what we had before. . . .
Sometime in our spiritual travels, as a complete surprise, we notice it has become winter. . . . This change has occurred, it seems, without preparation, without fair warning."
So spirituality writer Emilie Griffin begins, taking us on an exploration of our later years. It is a book filled with wonderful, rich story, carefully crafted spiritual exercises and wisdom from those who have gone before us. She explores relocation, vocational changes, losing her mother, and negotiating and renegotiating her relationships with her grown children.
The journey of our later years is a wondrous voyage, though turbulent at points. But it is, as Emilie Griffin reminds us, the journey we have been preparing for all along.
"Through story and metaphor, Griffin celebrates the truth and beauty of becoming older and wiser in a culture that abhors aging. As a result this book enriches not only those moving into their later years but also the ones who are watching those they love grow older."
Jan Johnson, author of Abundant Simplicity and Spiritual Disciplines Companion
"Many think the senior years of life are a time to reluctantly drift off into the sunset. 'Not so!' says Emilie Griffin. In prose as beautiful as a sunrise over the ocean, Souls in Full Sail glows with the wisdom of spiritual maturity and offers practices and questions to illumine our own voyage. This memoir, christened with Scripture and launched from the author's own experience, shows us how to navigate the seas that lead over the final horizon to the promised land of everlasting life. Griffin gives us cause to pause, ponder and praise!"
Albert Haase, O.F.M., author of Coming Home to Your True Self, Living the Lord's Prayer and This Sacred Moment
"Souls in Full Sail should find a place in our libraries, even as many of us seek to divest ourselves of much lifelong accumulation."
Wayne A. Holst, America, March 14, 2011
"I loved this book! It is what can happen when a gifted writer and seasoned spiritual director crafts a very personal meditation on getting older. Souls in Full Sail has all the best characteristics of a well-written memoir and it may help a lot of baby-boomers come to terms with something that is widely experienced but seldom prepped for--getting older. Reading this book has helped me find God in more and more present moments."
Gary W. Moon, M.Div., Ph.D., author, Apprenticeship with Jesus,; Vice President and Integration Chair, Richmont Graduate University
"Emilie Griffin, a writer of intelligent spirituality, writes with compelling wisdom about the growth that must still come after growing up. Her memories are vivid and poignant and her view of the end of the voyage is bright with the grace that flows from a fruitful life."
Luci Shaw, author of Harvesting Fog and The Crime of Living Cautiously
Souls In Full Sail:
Preface
1 Setting Out: The Surprise of Getting Older
2 Good Sailors: How Earlier Generations May Inspire Us
3 The Far Horizon: Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled
4 The Spiritual Life: Strength For theJourney
5 Night Fears: Some Things We Are Afraid Of
6 Churchyards : The Hope Of Resurrection
7 Weaving Family Rituals: A Word About Letting Go
8 A Different Wisdom: Living the Cross
9 Eastering: Transformation in Christ
10 Homeward: Celebrating the Present Moment
Notes