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Autumn Wisdom
Book Review and Discussion Questions
Autumn Wisdom
James Miller
Augsburg Fortress, 1995
By the year 2030, one in three Americans will be 50 or older. Our culture -- in communities and congregations -- is slow in addressing issues of aging. This book, and these reflections and dialogue questions, are an attempt to reverse things and tap into the vitality and spirituality of older people. My hope is that it can be a catalyst in developing a ministry with older adults in your congregations.
Autumn Wisdom represents the lives of many growing and inspiring persons who shared their hopes, beliefs, and wisdom with author James Miller. He is a clergyman, grief counselor, photographer, and writer. The author's sensitive explanation of the feelings that come with aging is enriched with words of wisdom and inspiration from the Bible, poetry, and literature. The beautiful photographs of nature invite the reader into spiritual reflection.
The following reflection and dialogue questions offer individuals UUs, elders, families, and intergenerational groups ten points for meditation and renewal. These points build on the affirming suggestions the author includes for finding renewal and purpose in life.
- Map your life journey. Using the helpful suggestions on page 14, list places (homes, work places, congregations), people (family, ancestors, hero/ines), turning points, and milestones. Reflect on the similarities and the differences between people in their late teens and people in their sixties. What people, places, events, and issues were important as you turned 18? As you turn 60?
- Add milestones on your life journey map to mark a personal listing of your spiritual life, such as critical experiences, choices, mentors, "revelations." Reflect on the words (and music) to a favorite hymn, prayer, poem. Meditate on their meaning to you daily throughout the coming week.
- Imagine that you are walking along an expansive shoreline and looking at the events of your life. What patterns or themes emerge? How would you describe the ebb and flow of your life? Write down some of your thoughts.
- Remember two people who have had a transformative effect on your life, on the person you have become. Describe them and their influence on your life. Write them a letter of appreciation.
- Recall the words of Ecclesiastes "for everything there is a season...a time to seek and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to throw away..." Make a list of the things you have thrown away over the years -- possessions, habits, grudges, ambitions, painful memories. Reflect on the nature of life as well as your resilience and growth.
- Go to your favorite spiritual place. Meditate and reflect on the gift of life and the abiding presence of the holy.
- The author writes "...autumn is a time of transformation..." freed from the doing of life to the being of life. What new ways of being are opening to you? What new beginnings are on the horizon?
- Honor one of your senses with special attention for a whole day. The next day pay attention to another sense and explore it.
- Write down your credo. In a paragraph or more capture what you believe about yourself, your relationship to others, where we have come from, and where we are going. Reflect and meditate on it. Share it with others. Add to it as your faith evolves.
- Nancy Wood in Many Winters has captured the philosophy of the Taos Pueblo in prose and poetry. She begins one poem, "today is a very good
day to die..." How would you like to live your last days? What legacy would you like to pass along? How would you like to be remembered?
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