Carol Orsborn, Ph.D. (1948) is the author of 25 books about the Boomer generation, spirituality and aging and quality of life, having appeared on Oprah, The Today Show, among others. She is the editor-in-chief of Fierce with Age: The Digest of Boomer Wisdom, Inspiration and Spirituality. www.fiercewithage.com Her blogs appear regularly on "The Huffington Post", PBS's "Next Avenue", Beliefnet.com and many more. Her most recent book is "The Spirituality of Age: A Seeker's Guide to Growing Older" coauthored with Dr. Robert L. Weber, former Jesuit, Assistant Professor of Psychology part-time at Harvard Medical School and a faculty member of Massachusetts General Hospital's Department of Psychiatry. www.spiritualityofage.comThe book has won stellar endorsements including this from Gail Sheehy, author of the classic text on adult development, "Passages.": This is the "Best book I have ever read on this most significant passage. . . Are you a Boomer on a white-knuckled ride trying to shift into reverse on aging? We all try. This knowing book will relax your grip. The authors illuminate the path of spiritual growth, leading us to come to terms with where we have failed and to make the passage to what really matters. Beautifully written, both from deep research and even deeper personal experience by the authors, a former Jesuit and a Jewish woman and Ph.D."Orsborn's previous books include "Fierce with Age: Chasing God and Squirrels in Brooklyn", the story of a tumultuous year spent transiting into "the wild space beyond midlife." Carol writes that she suddenly realized that she had become something else entirely than the brand and identity that had defined her over the past six decades: a doctorate in religion, status as Boomer marketing expert and author of bestselling books. Turning to scholars, sages and mystics on spirituality and aging, and inspired by her squirrel-hunting dog Lucky, she came to appreciate aging as the initiation of a fresh life stage bearing with it all the hallmarks of all the previous life stages combined: the high anticipation, the celebration and the bold, outright terror. Dr. Orsborn co-founded Fleishman-Hillard's FH Boom, the first initiative by a global PR firm to help brands connect with the Boomer consumer. She co-authored the first and most recent book on marketing to Boomer women, providing her expertise to such clients as Ford, Humana and Prudential Annuities. She currently serves as Executive Director of CoroFaith, providing audio spiritual and religious content to the aging and healthcare communities.She lives on the Cumberland River with her husband and two beloved dogs in Madison, Tennessee.Endorsements What the Experts are Saying about The Spirituality of Age“This book is the summons to a leap of faith, a moment of awakening that calls upon us to take responsibility for our lives. For the reader who is ready to dig in, this guide will become an indispensable map.“ -- Harry R. Moody, Ph.D. The Five Stages of the Soul“In their fervid pursuit of spiritual connections, Bob Weber and Carol Orsborn ground themselves-- and us-- to extraordinary moments in ordinary time. Their Guide brings us to the threshold of what really matters.” --W. Andrew Achenbaum, Ph.D., Older Americans“Best book I have ever read on this most significant passage. . . Are you a Boomer on a white-knuckled ride trying to shift into reverse on aging? We all try. This knowing book will relax your grip. The authors illuminate the path of spiritual growth, leading us to come to terms with where we have failed and to make the passage to what really matters. Beautifully written, both from deep research and even deeper personal experience by the authors, a former Jesuit and a Jewish woman and Ph.D.” --Gail Sheehy, Author of Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life and Daring:My Passages“At last, a book about aging that that does not envision it as a problem to be solved or even as a challenge to be overcome! It greets growing older, which happens to us all, if we are lucky, as a gift and an opportunity. But The Spirituality of Age is not just a book for oldsters. With age comes at least a little wisdom, and that wisdom is shareable for people in any age cohort. I savored this fine volume and commend it to anyone still searching, as I hope we all are, for the fullness of life.”--Harvey Cox, Hollis Research Professor of Divinity, Harvard University, Author of The Future of Faith and How to Read the Bible.“This is an in-depth, penetrating look written by two specialists on aging, a woman and a man, aging boomers themselves. It portrays aging as a spiritual experience, and unlike many current commentaries about people turning away from religion -- particularly those who say ’I'm spiritual but not religious’-- they turn that phrase on its head, and look at how life-experiences for boomers can lead to a more mature spiritual and experiential belief in God than the one perhaps rejected in earlier years or too simplistically accepted. People across faith traditions and secularists will find the book engaging and eye-opening.”--Wade Clark Roof, J.F. Rowny Professor of Religion and Society Emeritus and Research Professor, University of California at Santa Barbara, Author of A Generation of Seekers: The Spiritual Journeys of the Baby Boom Generation and Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion“The Spirituality of Age, by Robert Weber and Carol Orsborn, is an important book for those interested in the incredible depth of spiritual opportunity that aging brings. The intersection of spirituality and aging has been the subject of many books over the past few years. The Spirituality of Age fills an important gap, not by telling people what they ought to think about this subject but by posing a large array of vital questions that can fuel the readers’ own imaginations. The authors know that there is no single path to the spirituality of age and that we have to discover our own unique, energizing and motivating answers. The authors share their own responses to these questions as a way of modeling engagement with their subject. Their modeling is eloquent, thoughtful, and useful. Along the way they connect their narrative with other important work in this field. Time spent with this book and its wonderful questions can bring great insight and direction.”-- Robert C. Atchley, PhD, Author of Spirituality and Aging“This wise and lovely book invites readers to take their aging seriously and honestly as a time for growing into spiritual wisdom. The authors ask us to ponder with them 25 questions that will help us to such wisdom. They reveal themselves as they strive to answer the questions they pose and in the process draw us toward developing our own spirituality of age. Readers will, as I do, thank them for their generosity and their wisdom.” --Reverend William Barry SJ, Author of Finding God in All Things: A Companion to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and Praying the Truth: Deepening Your Friendship with God through Honest Prayer“This little book, built around questions to which each of us will have different and individual answers, emphasizes by its very structure that in our era old age can be a time of growth and spiritual discovery, a time of fulfillment of life, rather than its dreary aftermath.” --Mary Catherine Bateson, Cultural anthropologist, Author of Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom“Carol Orsborn and Robert Weber are wise and compassionate guides on the journey of aging. They beckon the reader to face the path ahead with honesty and courage. Through their own hard-won wisdom, they shine a light of hope for all of us who will, sooner or later, leave health, illusion and life itself behind.”--Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman offers spiritual resources through Growing Older, her Philadelphia-based, national practice, http://www.growingolder.net, Author of Jewish Wisdom for Growing Older: Finding Your Grit and Grace Beyond Midlife“In our personal search for finding a new depth of meaning in our later years, this book offers a welcome, yet unusual experience for the reader who is invited to be part of it. It is offered in the style of conversations, along with quotes from people in the fields of gerontology, sociology, literature and poetry.The authors, Robert Weber and Carol Orsborn, include the reader in their personal journey. They openly share their personal challenges, setbacks, distractions and learnings as they seek deeper meaning in their lives as they age. These days we often hear the word "spirituality". The spiritual search is a vital and continuous area of personal reflection for these authors. They encourage each of us to define the meaning of that word for ourselves. This book opens the door for all of us to explore our own growth, insights, inner peace, and continued learning that is calling to us as we age.”--Connie Goldman, Author of Who Am I Now That I'm Not Who I Was?“To my delight, this book prompted me to ask questions of myself that I had never posed before with so much clarity. The authors each respond to these questions themselves, a unique approach that is not ponderous or heavy-handed. I found myself leaving the safety of reader-as-spectator and entering the provocation of reader-as-participant. My own spiritual inquiry began to breathe more freshly.”--Wendy Lustbader, MSW, Author of Life Gets Better: The Unexpected Pleasures of Growing Older, and Counting on Kindness: The Dilemmas of Dependency“For those of us heeding the call to spiritual deepening in our elder years, The Spirituality of Age is a unique resource. The questions that form the core of this inspiring book are those that many of us carry on this journey. And the rich, experience-filled responses of the co-authors as well as the exercises they suggest will be invaluable in helping readers understand the many facets of their own spiritual potential and development as they age.”--Ron Pevny, Author of Conscious Living, Conscious Aging and Director of the Center for Conscious Eldering“In The Spirituality of Age, Robert Weber and Carol Orsborn have penned an exceptionally wise and timely book. Wrestling with the hard spiritual questions that so often disturb our later years, they dig deep for personal answers and generously encourage the reader to do likewise. Get ready, you may find yourself revising everything you think about aging and in the process making peace with your own answers. Perfect for personal growth, book clubs, and classes.”--John C. Robinson, Ph .D., D.Min. Psychologist, Interfaith Minister, Author of The Three Secrets of Aging, Bedtime Stories for Elders, and What Aging Men Want“All of us get older, few of us get wiser. As we search for an "authentic" spiritual practice we ignore the one we were given when we were born: aging. Bob Weber and Carol Orsborn's The Spirituality of Age places you firmly on this path. This is a book to be read, but more importantly lived.”--Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Author, Perennial Wisdom for the Spiritually Independent “Friends ‘on the way’, Carol and Bob have created a masterpiece! The Spirituality of Age: A Seeker’s Guide to Growing Older, is a must-read for all facing the quest for meaning and purpose in later life. With their honest, profound, and often witty, point-counterpoint perspectives on 25 of the major challenges of the gift of years, this book will enrich and deepen the lives of all of its readers and will be especially helpful to those guiding older adults on the path of psycho-spiritual growth in the second half of life. I am buying copies for all of my over-50 friends for Christmas!”--Jane Marie Thibault, Ph.D., Clinical Gerontologist and Professor Emerita, University of Louisville Medical School, Author of A Deepening Love Affair: The Gift of God in Later Life and Pilgrimage into the Last Third of Life: 7 Gateways to Spiritual Growth (with Richard L. Morgan)