Helen Wilkes - The Aging of Aquarius: Igniting Passion & Purpose as an Elder

Praise for
The Aging of Aquarius

If you want to make your retirement or elderhood the best part of your life, read this book. Interspersing her own amazing story, octogenarian Helen Wilkes points the way to purpose, passion, and pleasure in later years. Wilkes has woven psychology, philosophy, and poetry into a page-turner you will not want to put down. I read it in one sitting.

Dr.Roslyn Kunin, C.M., O.B.C., Roslyn Kunin and Associates, Inc.

In this inspiring work Helen Wilkes wastes no time raging against the dying of the light, showing instead that the light of mind and soul can shine ever more brightly even as our bodies grow old. The Aging of Aquarius is both an intimate personal account and a call to enlivenment and action for an entire generation.

Gabor Mat M.D., author, When The Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress

Whether you are contemplating retirement or well-established in the business of living your senior years, this literary adventure will nudge you to laugh at yourself, challenge yourself, and discover both encouragement and inspiration.

Sally Thorne, RN, PhD, FAAN, FCAHS, Professor, School of Nursing and Associate Dean, Faculty of Applied Science, University of British Columbia

Wilkes book stands out among a plethora of books on this topic. It is beautifully written and avoids the usual clichs and sentimental guff about the wonders of to use that dreadful phrase the Golden Years. It is not only a guide to living a good and purposeful life for elders, but for people of any age.

Roberta Rich, author, The Midwife of Venice, The Harem Midwife, and A Trial in Venice

Reading The Aging of Aquarius touched me deeply, speaking to both mind and heart. Helen Wilkes brings core concepts alive with deeply moving stories and examples from the life of a woman who clearly understands and embodies the challenges and life-enhancing opportunities of growing into the fullness of true elderhood. In reading her beautiful book, I felt like I was personally engaging with a shining model of the kind of elder I aspire to grow into.

Ron Pevny, Director, Center for Conscious Eldering
(www.centerforconsciouseldering.com)
and author, of Conscious Living, Conscious Aging

Beautifully written and rich in information, this book is a must-read, especially for Elders who have the richness of decades of experience and new found freedom to explore their lives with hope, curiosity, and positive thinking, leading to Igniting Passion and Purpose as an Elder. A most important book for the ages!

Ruth Neubauer, LCSW, Founder and Facilitator, The Wisdom of Elderhood (elderhoodwisdom.org)

Dont wait until retirement to read this! Today is the day to walk the path of life-review with author Helen Wilkes. Let her simple prose draw you in. Through her personal stories, youll learn the psychology, philosophy, and spirituality you need to confront your worries and find your purpose.

Rabbi Dr. Laura Duhan-Kaplan, Director of Inter-Religious Studies, Vancouver School of Theology

Copyright 2018 by Helen Wilkes.

All rights reserved.

Cover design by Diane McIntosh.

Cover images: iStock: senior woman 98265490; watercolour texture (title) 494763928

Printed in Canada. First printing September, 2018

Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of The Aging of Aquarius should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below. To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free (North America) 1-800-567-6772, or order online at www.newsociety.com

Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:

New Society Publishers

P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada

(250) 247-9737

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Waldstein Wilkes, Helen, 1936-, author

The aging of Aquarius : igniting passion & purpose as an elder / Helen Wilkes.

Includes index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-0-86571-894-4 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-55092-687-3 (PDF).--ISBN 978-1-77142-283-3 (EPUB)

1. Retirement--Planning. 2. Retirement--Psychological aspects. 3. Retirees--Psychology. 4. Retirees--Recreation. I. Title. II. Title: Igniting passion and purpose as an elder.

New Society Publishers mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision.

A S AN OCTOGENARIAN, Ive known my share of struggles and yes, sometimes my joints ache. However, contrary to all expectations, Im not seeking to regain my lost youth. Truth be told, this past year has been the greatest ever, and Im eagerly anticipating the next decade of life.

It has not always been thus. Lest you think I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth or that I am one of those insufferably cheerful people, permit me to introduce myself.

I was born to humble shopkeepers of Jewish heritage in a small village in the Sudetenland, a German-speaking region that had become part of Czechoslovakia following the First World War. Our village fell to Hitler when I was still in diapers, and as a consequence, I have spent a lifetime with fear and negativity as my constant companions. We fled, then we fled again, until finally, by sheer fluke, we landed penniless on an Ontario farm so dilapidated that no Canadian would buy it. With the remaining ten dollars that now constituted their entire fortune, my parents bought a cow so sick that it was dead the next morning. They learned to treasure the half-rotted apples that a neighbor invited them to collect from under his tree. It was a steep learning curve, but somehow, they survived.

Our home on the farm was a gloomy place where a wood stove barely heated the kitchen, and conversation was minimal. Not only were my parents exhausted by unaccustomed farm work, they were haunted by thoughts of what was happening to brothers, sisters, and parents, all trapped in the Nazi net. Rumors of extermination camps circulated throughout the war years, and at our table, anxiety hovered like an unwanted guest at every meal.

Others may have happy memories of school. My memories are of peers who mocked my halting, accented English, and who made barfing noises whenever I opened my lunchbox. Not until I was in Grade 6 did I have a friend, an equally lonely girl whose parents were also refugees. High school was an absolute nightmare of conflicting social pressures and personal isolation. The parents of my classmates forbade their sons to date me and encouraged their daughters to join a sorority that excluded me because I was Jewish.

This was doubly hurtful because the only religious education I had received was at a nearby church where I collected pamphlets of a blond, blue-eyed Christ, and where I learned to sing Jesus Loves Me.

Eventually, thanks to a four-year scholarship, I attended university, but it was hardly blue skies ahead for a woman in the pre-feminist era. Although I had been one of only two people at my university who passed the grueling foreign-service entry exam in 1957, a government official informed me that Canada had never trained a female diplomat and had no intention of taking on a twenty-year-old girl who would only get married and waste her training.