As more and more us live longer, the need to do so gracefully grows in importance. While life is not about age, it is about aging, and discovering its purpose. Chapters about Meaning, Transformation, Newness, Joy, Wisdom, and Productivity indicate Chittister’s view of that purpose. What about the negative? She does tackle it: Fear, Sadness, Loneliness, and Limitation, for example. But limitations are “boundaries not barriers”. We don’t have to succumb to them. “We are only as limited as we want to be”. “Old age is not a disease (though ageism is!), to be pitied, apologised for, feared, or resisted”. It is “a bright and vibrant place to be”, when the person you are takes precedence over what you do. It is the “softening season” in which everything in us is meant to achieve its “sweetest, richest, most unique self”. Chittister contrasts ‘passive’ aging (viewing old age just as time spent “in the throes of slow death”) with ‘active’ aging (a time to “live differently – and dauntlessly”). No prize for guessing which this book goes for! Are you bothered by the passage of time, or worried about aging loved ones? These stimulating reflections (“not meant to be read in one sitting”) will help you.