I love September. Maybe it’s the perpetual student in me, but this time of year has always seemed like a second new beginning to me – another New Year’s if you will – and a chance for reexamining resolutions and setting a new direction.
For twelve of the most recent Septembers, those new beginnings have revolved around our son starting another year of school. This September, we “turn a corner” – as my mother often says of major life changes – and he starts college. He’s staying local, so I’m not yet really an empty nester, but this September still feels different, as I know it should when a child begins to take control of their own life.
Perhaps that’s why Jan Cannon’s book, “Maturing with Moxie: A Wo-man’s Guide to Life After 60,” which I highlighted in this month’s “Three Big Questions” feature, struck such a chord with me when an advance copy crossed my desk earlier this summer. As women – and mothers in particular – we don’t always take the time to consider our own needs and wants when faced with caring for others.
But situations change, and so also, must our focus.
And here is where Cannon’s book truly shines. She pulls no punches in her discussions, encouraging women to look at all aspects of living life to the fullest after age 60 – from coming to terms with where and how we truly want to live at this stage of our lives, including a hard look at all the decisions and financials that go with myriad choices, to jobs, friendships, interests, dating (for those that might find themselves newly single) to changing family dynamics as such things as grandparenthood and retirement loom.
Though the book is directed at women, there’s plenty within its pages that can spark conversations with a spouse or life partner. After all, if we’re lucky, we’re on this part of the journey with someone, and thus have someone else’s needs – and wants – that by necessity, also have to come into the mix.
As Cannon said in our interview, she directed the book to women because we are – in most cases – the information gatherers and conversation starters.
She just wanted to be certain that we didn’t lose ourselves again in the process.
If you’re looking for some of her tips, check out her four-point advice in the Three Big Questions feature on page 10.
If you’d like to take a chance on winning a copy of her book, click here to check out the contest entry.
Thanks for reading,
Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com
