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    Aging Into Bliss
    Aging Into Bliss
    Aging Into Bliss
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    Aging Into Bliss

    By Christopher Foster

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    About this ebook

    This wise book -- a “rare blend of clarity and heart,” as one reviewer declared -- shows us that despite its challenges, and in fact because of them, aging can be a door to a beautiful new life filled with meaning and joy. It can be an opportunity to connect more deeply with the unconquerable love of being and express that love to the full whatever our age.

    Aging into Bliss consists of 27 meditations based in the author’s personal experience. Christopher Foster, who was born in London in 1932, shares insights and experiences that helped him navigate his childhood in wartime Britain, the sudden loss of his first wife, the collapse of a spiritual community that was his home for 36 years, and two major clinical depressions.

    Christopher invites us to see the challenges that life brings to us as a catalyst that can help us grow and discover the pristine masterpiece that we truly are – unharmed by turmoil.

    Follow your bliss, said Joseph Campbell. This book will help you do just that. It is an easy, light and friendly read which will inspire you time and again. Its words of encouragement will help you:

    1. Realize that your worth does not depend on circumstances.
    2. Find peace.
    3. Age well.
    4. Become more attuned to your inner wisdom.
    5. Relieve anxiety of major life changes.
    6. Answer the age-old questions: What is my purpose? Who am I?
    7. Help me cope.
    8. Stop worrying
    Here are some sample chapter titles from this book on aging: The Secret Bliss of Aging, Are There Surprising Benefits in Challenging Times? Changing Your Attitude Toward Fear, How My Big Challenge Boosted My Confidence, You Can Heal Your Past.

    Carol Leavenworth, Jungian psychotherapist, wrote in her foreword to this book: “Aging into Bliss goes to the heart of the mystery surrounding life’s final developmental stage. Chris reveals secrets to the joy and peace of mind that led him to the bliss he is discovering in his later years...and goes on to tell us exactly what his personal experience has taught him about the love within each one of us and the happiness that is hiding everywhere in plain sight.”

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChristopher Foster
    Release dateDec 7, 2012
    ISBN9781301431076
    Aging Into Bliss
    Author

    Christopher Foster

    I started blogging in May 2009 and have been called “the world’s oldest, newest blogger.” I’m the author of five books including The Raven Who Spoke with God, a fable that shows how if we trust life and listen to the nudges of our own heart, we will find the fulfillment we desire. First published on 9/11, the book has been translated into 11 languages and is available now in Kindle format at Amazon. My raven book is my favorite. I wrote it soon after moving to Denver from British Columbia to marry JoAnn 15 years ago. It was a huge step for both of us. JoAnn noticed I liked to go to a nearby coffee shop in the afternoon, and one day she said, “You’re in the coffee shop anyway, why don’t you write a book while you’re there?” So that’s what I did. She’s a wise lady. I was born in London in 1932. I was an only child and lived a normal British middle class life (if you don’t count WWII) until I was 16, when things began to get wild. I told my parents at lunch one day that what I wanted most in life was to find the truth. It didn’t go over well. Dad and I got into a fierce argument which ended suddenly when he lost his temper and slapped me hard across the side of my head. Dad was a reporter all his life, and I started out the same way, working on newspapers and magazines in London, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), New Zealand, and Canada. The longing to find a deeper meaning in existence took me finally to British Columbia, where I hitch-hiked to Alaska, got a job on a ranch, and then worked as a reporter on the Daily Colonist in Victoria. Through one of life’s synchronicities I met a British nobleman who became my mentor and changed my life. He was Lord Martin Cecil – a descendant of Lord Burghley, chief adviser to Queen Elizabeth I – who as a young man, had given up his British aristocratic heritage to come out to the wilds of British Columbia and manage his father’s cattle ranch. I loved Lord Martin and became part of a spiritual community he had founded in 1946 in 100 Mile House, BC. I was a member of the community for 36 years and thought it would be my home forever. But after my mentor died suddenly in 1988 the community went into decline. A few years later, at the age of 63, I had no choice but to return to the world I had abandoned in the idealism of my youth. I was in despair. It was like stepping off a precipice. But I know now it was a blessing in disguise. It opened a door to a new life and made it possible for me to find a growing sense of true freedom and purpose. I’ve loved writing all my life. I wrote my first story in an old scrapbook at the age of 7 with bombs falling all around the apartment in central London where my Mum and I lived in the early days of the Blitz. Dad was away in the army as a war correspondent, first of all in Dover, covering the Battle of Britain, and later in India and Burma. He took part in a number of landings with the British Army against the Japanese – armed with a typewriter instead of a gun. Today, as I enter my 80s, I’m armed with a computer which makes it possible for me to embark upon wild adventures such as blogging and writing digital books. I’m happier than I have ever been in my life. There are challenges, of course. But I am so thankful for the goodness of life and the wisdom that calls to each of us in these troubled times and the opportunity we have to give the gift that is ours to give. With love and blessings to you. For more from Christopher, please visit my blog at www.thehappyseeker.com or write me at christopherjfoster@comcast.net.

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      Book preview

      Aging Into Bliss - Christopher Foster

      Foreword

      By Carol Leavenworth, Jungian psychotherapist

      In his final years of driving, my father Frank would climb into his big white Buick for a trip into town, insert the key into the ignition and pause before backing out of the garage.

      Where am I? he would muse.

      Then, Where am I going?

      And finally he would ask himself, How do I get there?

      Dad wasn’t one to give advice or pass along life lessons. But here, I thought, was some important wisdom. These are questions we could all be asking ourselves and not just when we’re in the car.

      I learned a lot from Dad down the years. He taught me highway driving and how to balance a checkbook along with many other things. But his most important lessons – like this one – were imparted indirectly.

      Sometimes toward the end of his days, I would ask him to tell me about the essential things that his long life taught him. He would become shy and change the subject.

      Maybe he was afraid that if he opened up, he would be misunderstood or dismissed. Probably this had happened to him before. If it had, he would not have been alone.

      Young and old, we are all victims of a pervasive and insidious cultural ageism. Our elders are trivialized and often ignored. We look at the elderly and see bodies that are in decline. We see white hair and wrinkled skin. And we want to turn away.

      We tend to think of the old as failing adults with nothing much to say that is relevant to busy adult lives. We haven’t been taught that there is another stage of psychological development waiting for us all beyond adulthood. We seldom hear about the happiness that characterizes this final period of life. We don’t understand that our elders know the answers to questions we have been asking ourselves since adolescence.

      This is why I was excited when Christopher Foster offered to share his latest work, Aging into Bliss – Discovering the Wisdom and Joy of Your Timeless Nature. Chris is in the vanguard of a growing number of elders committed to letting the rest of us in on important realizations to be found on the other side of the great demarcation between adulthood and elderhood.

      Aging into Bliss goes to the heart of the mystery surrounding life’s final developmental stage. In his first chapter, Chris reveals key secrets to the joy and peace of mind that led him to the bliss he is discovering in his later years.

      Chris goes on to tell us exactly what his personal experience has taught him about the love within each one of us and the happiness that is hiding everywhere in plain sight. And he doesn’t stop there. He shares specific details about his personal path to profound inner wisdom – the wisdom he believes any of us may discover deep within.

      Acknowledging that each individual’s journey is unique, Chris encourages us to seek out our own happiness and bliss. With the confidence that arises out of authentic personal experience, he points the way to self-realization. And he shows us exactly how to explore this path for ourselves.

      When I asked my ninety-year-old father to tell me his secret to long life, he answered, Don’t die.

      I would add this to Dad’s advice: "Don’t die before you read Chris Foster’s amazing little book Aging into Bliss."

      Carol Leavenworth is a psychotherapist in Denver, Colorado. For helpful resources and articles on aging visit her website at: www.desperatecaregivers.com

      CHAPTER 1

      The Secret Bliss of Aging

      "Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls."

      – Joseph Campbell

      I have learned many lessons in my life. But the most remarkable lesson of all is learning that aging, despite its challenges, can be a door to increasing happiness and fulfillment.

      As I enter my 80’s I experience a secret bliss based not so much in outer circumstances but in a growing awareness of the timeless wisdom and joy of my true nature.

      I call it secret simply because it is something that doesn't seem to be talked about much in our society. Aging gets a bad rap, for the most part. As Linda Fried of the International Longevity Center at Columbia University said recently, We have such a human aversion to getting old; it's associated with death, and death is scary. But as a society, we have not had the conversations we need to have. There are huge opportunities there.

      It’s my hope that this book, based in insights and experiences from my blog with new material added, will contribute to the conversation that as Dr. Fried says, is so urgently needed right now. It’s a conversation about aging, yes, but also about who we truly are – and what our purpose is on this beautiful, troubled planet.

      My life has not been easy. I’ve had my share of tribulation. But I’ve learned that wisdom is within each one of us, and that as we listen to its quiet voice in our heart, a way through fear and doubt will emerge.

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