Memory, faith, doubt, regret, imagination and earlier versions of ourselves all inhabit the life within. What can Proust, spiritual traditions and psychology teach us about this inner world as we grow older? I'd use “The Inner Life: What Grows Within Us as We Age” for the
What Thomas Merton Learned at Fourth and Walnut On March 18, 1958, Thomas Merton was standing at the intersection of Fourth and Walnut in downtown Louisville when something unusual happened. Merton had spent years in a Trappist monastery in rural Kentucky pursuing silence, prayer, and the inner
A collection of reflections on isolation, meaning, friendship, solitude, aging, and human connection. Loneliness in later life can arrive suddenly and disrupt our sense of stability. This can happen when a loved one dies, a marriage ends, we leave a job for the last time, or
Spirituality and Loneliness in Later Life Recent studies have revealed a troubling trend: nearly half of adults today have fewer than three close friends in whom they can confide. That number has doubled since 1990. This is not a new concern for us. In earlier reflections on
What an ancient Jewish teaching suggests about faith, change, and seeing what was there all along In the Jewish tradition, there is a passage in the Talmud, a collection of ancient teachings and discussions, that describes Moses watching the Torah as it is being written. He
Theodore Roosevelt was anything but cautious. He moved quickly, took on fights others avoided, and usually came out ahead. When challenged, he pushed back harder. He had already been president. Still, it wasn’t enough. After his tenure in the White House, he sought a new challenge. Roosevelt found it
A clear look at what The Last Repair Shop is really about—and why its story of repair, care, and continuation stays with so many viewers.
The Retirement Trap When Social Security was introduced in 1935, it was described as a safeguard against what lawmakers called the “hazards and vicissitudes of life.” The language reflected the gravity of the moment. The country was emerging from economic collapse, and old age, for many,
The ancient Greeks had a word for a necessary descent: katabasis. The katabasis meaning is simple—a going down. In their stories, heroes did not always begin with triumph. Often the journey required entering darkness first, descending into uncertainty or loss before any wisdom could emerge. Many
Sunday’s reflection began with a man who stayed in one place for nearly his entire life. But remaining in later life is not only a matter of geography. In later life, “remaining” can become a quieter practice: staying with what is true, staying with what is unfinished,