Wising Up

by Black, Kathy; Elkins, Heather Murray

• ISBN13: 9781608992263
• ISBN10: 1608992268
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-01
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Pub

Summary

Wising Upprovides rituals and guidance for women as they age. it helps them make the often difficult life transitions wisely and in the context of their faith communities. Instead of focusing exclusively on time-worn thresholds such as menopause, marriage and divorce, and dying, The book contains affirming rituals on: coming to terms with the changes in one's body; learning to live with and depend on an item like a walker or a hearing aid; giving up one's driver's license; deciding how to give away one's household contents; and being orphaned. In addition To The rituals--and guidelines on how to create one's own rituals--the book contains a number of short stories, hymns, prayers, quotations, and poems to help ease women through the aging process. Contributors: Susan Beehler, Teresa Berger, Kathy Black, Ruth Duck, Heather Murray Elkins, Brigitte Enzner-Probst, Martha Whitmore Hickman, Martha Ann Kirk, Mary Elizabeth Mullino Moore, Susan Roll, Deborah Sokolove, Linda J. Vogel, and Janet Walton.

Author Biography

Kathy Black holds the Gerald Kennedy Chair of Homiletics and Liturgics at the Claremont School of Theology and is the author of A Healing Homiletic, Worship Across Cultures, and Culturally-Conscious Worship. Heather Murray Elkins is Professor of Worship and Liturgical Studies at Drew University Theological School in Madison, New Jersey. She is the author of Worshiping Women.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. 8
Prelude	p. 9
Introduction	p. 11
Psalm 71	p. 31
Practicing Partnership
Partnering with Things	p. 35
Life Partners	p. 45
Partnering with Community: Giving Up the Car Keys	p. 52
"When We Must Bear Persistent Pain"	p. 58
Being Changed
Change of Life: A Flash of Insight	p. 61
Celebrating Change: Croning	p. 67
Changing Roles: Becoming Orphaned	p. 73
Changing Self: Growing Stranger	p. 77
"When Earth Is Changed"	p. 83
Making Choices
The Woman Who Wouldn't Grow Old A short story	p. 88
To Dye or Not to Dye	p. 95
More Blessed to Receive	p. 101
Radical Choice: Losing a Part of One's Body	p. 106
The Willing of Things	p. 114
Creating Community: Rituals of Recognition	p. 121
Going Home
"Let Me Go Home"	p. 134
A Serendipitous Dance of Death	p. 137
A Country Way of Dying	p. 145
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep	p. 153
"Daybreak"	p. 165
Facing Finitude: Between "Now" and the "Hour of Our Death"	p. 166
Postlude	p. 177
Appendix: Sources for Women, Ritual, and Aging	p. 179
Notes	p. 186
Contributors	p. 190
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