”We do not set out to become old. Far from it. We hardly intend even to become middle-aged. Instead we plan to live in some eternal now which will lead on to something better, something more complete than what we had before… Sometime in our spiritual travels, as a complete surprise, we notice it has become winter… This change has occurred, it seems, without preparation, without fair warning.”

So spirituality writer Emilie Griffin begins Souls in Full Sail, taking us on an exploration of our later years. It is a book filled with wonderful, rich story, carefully crafted spiritual exercises and wisdom from those who have gone before us. She explores relocation, vocational changes, losing her mother, and negotiating and renegotiating her relationships with her grown children.

The journey of our later years is a wondrous voyage, though turbulent at points. But it is, as Emilie reminds us, the journey we have been preparing for all along.

2010