The Blossoming of Women
A Workbook on Growing from Older to Elder
- 2023 INDIES Finalist
- Finalist, Women's Studies (Adult Nonfiction)
With stories and questions designed to nurture self-awareness, compassion, and acceptance of late-life changes, The Blossoming of Women is an supportive self-help guide.
Karen Roberts’s encouraging self-help book The Blossoming of Women is about passing on one’s wisdom and making a difference in one’s community late in life.
This book is written for women who are at least in their sixties, who may no longer have the responsibilities of caring for children, elderly parents, or spouses and who are ready to make the transition from just growing older to becoming an elder. It emphasizes the gifts that come with age, particularly for those who age in good health and in a comfortable enough financial situation to be able to make choices about how they wish to live out their remaining days. It draws a contrast between just adding years, without seeing “the needs or beauty of others,” and choosing to be transformed—“refusing to allow egos or stereotypes to block … growth.” Indeed, it encourages its audience to reconcile their personal challenges through spiritual connections, psychological analysis, and working through grief. Its process is not always easy or straightforward; it requires tapping into one’s intuition and creativity to forge the path ahead.
The bulk of the book features the stories of women who have taken on the roles of elders in their communities, helping others through callings such as using music to heal and comfort, working as a death doula, supporting the homeless, and using art to document the beauty and wisdom of people’s lives. They represent a wide variety of experiences; they are inspirational and instructive, illustrating the possibility of finding new directions late in life. And they serve as guides, modelling change-making. Even the story of Chiron, the wisest of the centaurs in Greek mythology and a healer and teacher who transformed into a constellation after his death, is incorporated as an example: herein, Chiron is a wounded healer who takes care of the world and himself as well. Such stories are complemented by thought-provoking reflection questions to help audiences relate the lessons to their own lives. There’s space to consider the challenges and opportunities of childhood, to name one’s gifts, to acknowledge unreached goals, and to determine a plan for the future.
The Blossoming of Women is a thoughtful and generous self-help guide for women facing late-life changes; it suggests means of writing one’s own robust, fruitful final chapter.
Reviewed by
Sarah White
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
