What we know so far

One of the most moving and inspirational collections to be gathered in recent times, these interviews, in narrative form, detail the spiritual journeys of twenty-five women of wisdom, all over the age of fifty. With astonishing courage and candor, this diverse, celebrated group of women addresses such subjects as childhood, motherhood, sex, lovers, marriage, divorce, and menopause, and reveals pivotal moments of their lives, choices, losses, gains, and regrets. In their own words, they tell us what it means to be a woman and a human being in twentieth-century America, to be wise with the wisdom of experience, not youth. This is a book about transformation and affirmation, about people who have struggled and triumphed, who have changed in some deep and remarkable way, women whose voices will help other women to locate the source of their own grace and power. As Janine Vega says, "An older woman who has gone through love, childbearing, loss of love, divorce, widowhood, loss of the mothering function - this woman has an incredible power. We all have it, we were born with it, and now it's time to reclaim it. We have to reestablish our connection to the old ways. We have to look in the right place. We can either choose sadness, constriction, despair, or we can choose joy. Let us choose joy."