Autumn Years: Taking the Contemplative Path

Description

This is a beginner's guide to contemplation for anyone in the second half of life and also a love story. Autumn Years describes the practice of contemplation as part of a strategy of successful aging. Recognizing that there is no single contemplative path, it includes: sitting meditation, centering prayer, walking meditation, and loving-kindness meditation. It also looks at other practices as well: yoga, lectio divina, koan study, music meditation, dream work, and even travel as pilgrimage. 'Shows that marriage is as much a spiritual journey as monasticism... youth only the beginning of the human exploration of wonder, divine passion, and holiness.' Laurence Freeman, O.S.B., director of the World Community of Christian Meditation

Robert H. King, a graduate of Harvard and Yale, was professor of philosophy and religion at Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi, where he was also academic dean. His most recent book is Thomas Merton and Thich Nhat Hanh: Engaged Spirituality in an Age of Globalization. He and Elizabeth live in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado. Elizabeth M. King is the author of seven books, published under the name Marilyn Morgan Hellenberg, and over 500 poems, articles, and stories, published in more than two dozen magazines from Commonweal, Guideposts, and The Living Church to Parents' Magazine, Reader's Digest, and the Upper Room. Her book God's Best for You sold over one hundred thousand copies in its Guidepost edition (1988).

"Autumn Years: Taking the Contemplative Path (Continuum) takes the form of a conversation between Robert... and Elizabeth. The couple's alternating insights drift down, gently, like leaves in the reader's path. And one shares, intimately, in their moments of clarity, their epiphanies, and their amazement at the synchronicity of inner and outer events. The author's journey is genuinely inspiring, their voices always honest, always prodding readers to find their own way. One need not be facing retirement to benefit from the Kings' experiences, for the wisdom they share is universal. But anyone experiencing a major transition- a divorce, separation or illness, for example- is likely to be especially inspired. For those who have yet to study comparative religion, the book is an effective introduction to many intellectual strains in spirituality..."- Millsaps Magazine, Fall-Winter 2005 -- Millsaps Magazine