Listening to Midlife

Rating:
Summary: Midlife soul searching.
Review: By midlife, many people derive their personal identities from college degrees, marriage, careers, children, and their material possessions. In our middle years, Freud says that we look for ourselves in work and love. "Inexplicable exhaustion, mysterious pain, insomnia, uncontrollable crying, profound dissatisfaction at work" are all symptoms of a midlife transition (p. 22). "Deny your body's message too long," Mark Gerzon warns, "and you may get sick. Deny your mind's warnings, and you may go crazy. Deny your soul too long, and you may lose it" (p. 36).

I arrived at this book adrift at 43, with my life in transition, yearning for a greater sense of authenticity in my life. "In the second half of life," Gerzon writes, "our old compasses no longer work. The magnetic fields alter. The new compass that we need cannot be held in our hand, only in our heart. We read it not with our mind alone, but with our soul . . . Now we yearn for wholeness" (p. 5). In his insightful examination of body, marriage, work, aging, our planet, and spirituality, Gerzon reassures us that "aging has meaning" (p. 182). He encourages to adjust our thinking to view a midlife transition as a natural opportunity for personal growth, rather than as a crisis. Seen this way, the "private, lonely, and often unchartered journey" (p. 107) through midlife becomes a time for "healing deep wounds, seeking our soul/mate, caring for our families, committing ourselves to a true Calling, respecting the aging process and our elders" (p. 220). It is a time, Gerzon writes, for having the "ultimate affair with the ultimate stranger: your shadow" (p. 109). Midlife is an opportunity for transformation, for facing the shadows of our personalty (p. 81), for paying attention to disillusionments (p. 109), for bringing heaven down into our daily lives (pp. 263-64), and for listening to our dreams, our "inner elders" (p. 274).

This five-star book offers wisdom and clarity to any reader attempting to make sense of the journey through midlife.

G. Merritt

Rating:
Summary: Midlife soul searching.
Review: By midlife, many people derive their personal identities from college degrees, marriage, careers, children, and their material possessions. In our middle years, Freud says that we look for ourselves in work and love. "Inexplicable exhaustion, mysterious pain, insomnia, uncontrollable crying, profound dissatisfaction at work" are all symptoms of a midlife transition (p. 22). "Deny your body's message too long," Mark Gerzon warns, "and you may get sick. Deny your mind's warnings, and you may go crazy. Deny your soul too long, and you may lose it" (p. 36).

I arrived at this book adrift at 43, with my life in transition, yearning for a greater sense of authenticity in my life. "In the second half of life," Gerzon writes, "our old compasses no longer work. The magnetic fields alter. The new compass that we need cannot be held in our hand, only in our heart. We read it not with our mind alone, but with our soul . . . Now we yearn for wholeness" (p. 5). In his insightful examination of body, marriage, work, aging, our planet, and spirituality, Gerzon reassures us that "aging has meaning" (p. 182). He encourages to adjust our thinking to view a midlife transition as a natural opportunity for personal growth, rather than as a crisis. Seen this way, the "private, lonely, and often unchartered journey" (p. 107) through midlife becomes a time for "healing deep wounds, seeking our soul/mate, caring for our families, committing ourselves to a true Calling, respecting the aging process and our elders" (p. 220). It is a time, Gerzon writes, for having the "ultimate affair with the ultimate stranger: your shadow" (p. 109). Midlife is an opportunity for transformation, for facing the shadows of our personalty (p. 81), for paying attention to disillusionments (p. 109), for bringing heaven down into our daily lives (pp. 263-64), and for listening to our dreams, our "inner elders" (p. 274).

This five-star book offers wisdom and clarity to any reader attempting to make sense of the journey through midlife.

G. Merritt

Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: I believe that most mid-life crises are grounded in a palpable dread of getting old. Nothing in our culture, media, or general perception of life, tells us anything positive about aging so it's no wonder that everyone is running out to get Botox or sinking into mid-life depression.

I read this book to help out a male friend in crisis, and ended up helping myself. As a woman, I have come to view aging as form of death-sentence. I search my face to see if I have any wrinkles and often long to be 22 again. This book gives an accurate and scathing critique of the culture in which we live where aging has become a "disease" or something to be battled. I learned that fear of aging is a form of self-hatred; after all, what is the alternative to growing older? Dying young! This youth-obssessed society has made a whole segment of our population feel disenfranchised, ignored, and repulsive. It is shameful. If you're freaked out about getting on, read this book.

Rating:
Summary: If your old compass is broken...
Review: I discovered this book early in my crisis. Three years later I still routinely consult Gerzon's wisdom. I've read volumes trying to find my through what he calls The Forest Dark, and no words have rung truer than those found in Listening to Midlife. It's a masterpiece and, for those of us with a malfunctioning compass, a light to guide us through what can be the most terrifying time of adult life. His best advice: Have the Ultimate Affair with the Ultimate Stranger - Your Shadow.

Mark has been there, he knows the way through.

Rating:
Summary: If your old compass is broken...
Review: I discovered this book early in my crisis. Three years later I still routinely consult Gerzon's wisdom. I've read volumes trying to find my through what he calls The Forest Dark, and no words have rung truer than those found in Listening to Midlife. It's a masterpiece and, for those of us with a malfunctioning compass, a light to guide us through what can be the most terrifying time of adult life. His best advice: Have the Ultimate Affair with the Ultimate Stranger - Your Shadow.

Mark has been there, he knows the way through.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for someone feeeling totally confused.
Review: I was totally confused about where I was and where I wanted to go with the rest of my life. Mark Gerzon gives wonderful examples of others that have faced similar questions in their own life from Buzz Aldrin to many of his own everyday patients. Although not every chapter was of interest, I found this to be an excellent jumping off place for my own quest to integrate my "Shadow Side" with the successful life I had achieved so far. I wish I had read this before I started my own search for my "second half of my life" identity.