Aging into Bliss: Discovering the Wisdom and Joy of Your Timeless Nature - Softcover

Foster, Christopher

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0971179611 ISBN 13: 9780971179615

Publisher: Singing Spirit Books, 2012

Synopsis

Aging can be a door to a beautiful new life

This wise book -- a "rare blend of clarity and heart," as one reviewer declared -- affirms that growing old does not have to be the inevitable downward journey we sometimes fear. On the contrary, despite its challenges -- and in fact because of them -- aging can be a door to a beautiful new life filled with increasing meaning and joy. It can be an opportunity to connect more deeply with the unconquerable love of our being and express that love to the full regardless of our age.

Aging into Bliss consists of 27 meditations based in the author's personal experience. Christopher Foster, who was born in London in 1932, shares insights and experiences that helped him navigate his childhood in wartime Britain, the sudden loss of his first wife, the collapse of the spiritual community that was his home for 36 years, and two major clinical depressions. Christopher invites us to see the challenges of these changing times as a catalyst that can help us grow and discover the pristine masterpiece that we truly are -- unharmed, and even strengthened, by turmoil.

Follow your bliss, said Joseph Campbell. This book will help you do just that. It is an easy, light and friendly read which can inspire you time and again. Its words of encouragement will help you:

1. Realize that your true worth is not dependent upon circumstances.
2. Find peace.
3. Age well.
4. Become more attuned to your inner wisdom.
5. Relieve the fear of death and other major life changes.
6. Answer the age-old questions: What is my purpose? Who am I?
7. Cope with life.
8. Re-connect with an inner joy and purpose that increases with age.
9. Find meaning.

Here are some sample chapter titles: The Secret Bliss of Aging, Are There Surprising Benefits in Challenging Times, Changing Your Attitude Toward Fear, How My Big Challenge Boosted My Confidence, You Can Heal Your Past.

Carol Leavenworth, Jungian psychotherapist, wrote in her foreword to this book: Aging into Bliss goes to the heart of the mystery surrounding life's final developmental stage. Chris reveals secrets to the joy and peace of mind that led him to the bliss he is discovering in his later years, and goes on to tell us exactly what his personal experience has taught him about the love within each one of us and the happiness that is hiding everywhere in plain sight.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

We live in difficult times, for sure. But in this wise, inspiring book based in his personal experience, 80-year-old author and blogger Christopher Foster has an encouraging message to share.

With passion and an open heart he declares that aging can be a time of remarkable happiness as we learn to see this familiar rite of passage in a new light. He reminds us that while our body ages, our unconquerable spirit is ageless. He writes of the magic of little moments and the power of synchronicity. And he shows how challenges can help you grow and expand your borders, and discover the timeless wisdom and joy of your true nature.

About the Author:

Christopher Foster was born in London in 1932, son of a veteran British journalist. He wrote his first story at the age of 7 while bombs were falling all around the London apartment where he and his mother lived in the early days of WW11 while his Dad was overseas as a war correspondent.

Christopher is the author of five books including an inspirational fable, The Raven Who Spoke with God, self-published on 9/11 and later translated into 11 foreign language editions. "It soars, this is no ordinary bird, and no ordinary book," said the Sunday Oklahoman.

An only child, Christopher told his parents firmly at lunch one day that his goal in life was to find the true meaning of existence. It led to a fierce argument with his Dad who slapped the young dreamer across the face. Christopher followed in his father's footsteps as a reporter, working on newspapers in London, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), New Zealand, and Canada. His passion for meaning and truth took him to British Columbia, where he worked as a reporter on the Daily Colonist in Victoria and later met a British nobleman who changed his life.

Lord Martin Cecil -- a descendant of Lord Burghley, chief adviser to Queen Elizabeth I -- had resigned his commission in the Royal Navy to manage his father's cattle ranch in British Columbia. For 36 years, Christopher was a member of a spiritual community Lord Martin had established in the interior of BC. He thought it would be his home forever, but the community collapsed after the death of its leader and with virtually no material resources, he returned to the world he had abandoned in his youth. It was a brutal transition but it opened a door to a new, increasingly happy life.

Christopher lives with his wife JoAnn in Denver. He has a son, Durwin, in Vancouver. Christopher founded The Happy Seeker blog in 2009.

About this edition

• Publisher: Singing Spirit Books
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0971179611
• ISBN 13: 9780971179615
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 132