I’m turning 52 tomorrow. Maybe it’s my age, or this time of year, thats got me naturally reflective about the past.
I find myself missing old friends and reflecting on faces that slipped away long ago. Lots of thoughts about what I could’ve done differently and missed opportunities.
I’d like to feel hope and possibility and aliveness down in my bones again.
Can anyone recommend any books, fiction, non fiction, essays, to help me see this time of my life as an adventure? This time of reflection and sadness as a time of mourning for my old self, before I enter a different, likely exciting period?
I should add that I’m not depressed, just a bit gloomy. So many “what ifs”. I have a loving family, great wife, etc. But lately I feel a bit stuck in the past and would really welcome some perspective on the road ahead.
by CostlyDugout
5 Comments
Elderhood by Stephen Jenkinson
Happy birthday! Hope you have a great day celebrating YOU tomorrow.
I would recommend How to Break a Girl by Amanda Sung but her protagonists are all women in their 30s going onto 40s.
Other than that, I know another married man in his mid 50s who absolutely loves this book: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez.
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande did it for me. It puts aging into perspective. I’m in my 70s with some health problems. It helped me chill out about aging and dying.
A man named ove by Frederick backman
Not sure A River Runs Through It is the right content thematically but the fact that it was Norman Maclean’s debut novel at age 72 (I think?) could be some good inspiration