Listen for your own deep questions and follow them. Let them guide you the way a compass guides a lost traveler, marking true north when there are no maps. ~ Sherry Ruth Anderson This is an amazing book, whether you are already ripe, moving toward ripeness, or totally green – this is a book that at the very least offers you questions you definitely want to think about in your life, and at the very most – offers you a compass to let you know where you find yourself now, and where you want to be. Sherry Ruth Anderson gives the gift of her own life experience and that of her cohorts in aging and saging. She offers her own deep questions and shows the way to listen for your own soul questions so that you find your own personal path. In reading this thoughtful book you find your own clues and your own ideas on: What to expect - (in your life as you move forward) What to offer to the world - (everyone is here with a gift to offer – do you know yours?) What to let go of - (you know you need to release old programs – do you know which ones?) What to do – (is what you are doing what you want to do? If not, why not?) And don’t be scared off by the word questions – they are running through your mind all the time – Why did I do that? What do I do now? What does that mean? Questions are merely mind ticklers to expansion in your life – embrace them and be open to the answers or ideas that come to you, and enjoy letting Sherry Anderson be your guide. Sherry emphasizes that she does not have your answers, you have your answers. You just won’t know your answers until you start paying attention to the questions that are moving through your mind. My personal experience of this book, perhaps because I am well into the Ripening time, in my own life, is that it serves to offer me a fresh perspective on what I am experiencing in my life at this age. What is happening now in our world is not what I may have expected for my life in other decades, and in other times. Especially at this period of time in the world, many of us who thought we might be retired, are continuing to work longer into our ‘elder’ time perhaps because of the global economic shift, or even more deeply, because the time of life that we used to consider ‘old’, is a moving target. I am grateful that this is so, and at the same time it requires a new perspective of who I am now, how I want to be in the world, what I have to offer, and when I want to shift from one way of being to another. Who are you now, how are you Being, and would you like some guidance? The Ripening Time offers you many ideas and many great things to think about. I recently read an article that Sherry wrote as well – the last lines offered are: Because living into the questions means opening to a quality of living presence flowing through you, through the moments of your days. So you become the questions, unfolding and ever new, revealing the possibilities of this human life. Doesn’t it make you curious to discover your own real questions? I personally find this book beautiful, thoughtful and amazingly useful. I highly recommend it for all of us at a certain age – and for all who want to reach this place with joy and grace. ~ Dr. Katie Garnett, The One Command Life: http://theonecommandlife.com/

The bestselling author of The Feminine Face of God invites the reader to engage the aging process through the art of inner inquiry. She guides us beyond our culture's mindtraps through stories where elders face into the lies, the losses and endings, the tender and bittersweet and ferocious truths of growing old. Giving us an indispensable compass, she shows how growing into old age can be a fruition, the genuine grace and gift of human ripening. ~ , Watkins Review

There’s an intriguing new book about getting older in our fast-moving society and world. It is completely different from the self-help books that present any number of steps to survive the physical and mental challenges that lie ahead. This is a slim paperback with a gorgeous cover painting of harvest fruits and vegetables, the analogy to nature that the author weaves through the true life stories of “elders” . Whether a reader is in the middle years or beyond, “Ripening Time” is a positive provocative book, combining deep knowledge with expressive prose. Sherry Ruth Anderson, Ph.D. is a writer and speaker who has spent the last decade studying conscious development in aging. She is the best selling co-author of “The Feminine Face of God” and “The Cultural Creatives.” In Canada, she chaired the Department of Psychological Research at the Clark Institute of Psychiatry and was Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto Medical School. Her research from that period appears in her book with J.R.Martin, “Crazy Talk: Studies in Schizophrenic Thought Disorder”. She lives in Northern California with her husband, Paul and “takes great joy in walking in nature preserves near their home.” This how she describes her latest book: “Ripening Time” presents a new perspective on aging through the art of inner inquiry. We enter the inside stories beyond the culture’s mind traps, listening as elders name the lies they’ve believed for too long and uncover the tender and bittersweet and ferocious truths of growing old. The stories become an indispensable compass to a new kind of maturity where aging can be a fruition, the genuine grace and gift of human ripening.” In her book, she poses possible answers to the most searching questions that middle aged and older women and men face in their daily lives. ~ Joyce Sloan Anderson, Professor of Sociology and Chairperson of the Social Sciences Division at Atlantic Cape Community College

Anderson presents “a new perspective on aging, inviting the reader to engage the aging process through the art of inner inquiry. This work guides beyond our culture’s mind traps through stories where elders face into the lies, the losses and endings, the tender and bittersweet and ferocious truths of growing old.” http://creativeagelondon.ca/stories/review-ripening-time-inside-stories-for-aging-with-grace-by-sherry-ruth-anderson/ ~ Penn Kemp, writer-in-residence for Creative Age Festival, London

Luminous, tender and wise, Sherry Anderson's beautiful book encourages us to face what we so often avoid—the inevitability of our own aging. Without sugarcoating the hardships, she leads us into uncharted territory. Through her eyes, we realize that far from dark and dreadful, old age is a stage of life graced with gifts and blessings every bit as abundant as those of youth. ~ Jalaja Bonheim, author of Evolving Towards Peace

What great timing! As women are leaping ahead in assuming leadership roles, Anderson draws on her considerable experience and wisdom to offer a guide to growing wise and big-hearted, along with growing old. She teaches with great stories, leads by gently inviting and encourages with obvious love and care. ~ David Kundtz, author of Quiet Mind: One-Minute Retreats from a Busy World

The perfect book for baby boomers (and all who love us) on our next frontier— aging. By sharing her personal quest and the art of inner inquiry, Sherry Anderson guides us outside our mind traps into the possibility of a grace-filled reality. ~ Jessica Britt, Founding Teacher, Diamond Approach North Sea (DANS), The Netherlands

Ripening Time invites the reader to engage the aging process with an imaginative boldness— challenging the lies we’ve been told, confronting our fears and offering a compass for the years ahead. This is a book you will want to keep with you as you continue becoming a wise elder. ~ Nancy Sylvester, President of the Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue; former President, Leadership Council for Women Religious.

...Anderson's beautifully written exploration of becoming an elder is a conversation that reverberates inside the reader. ~ Diane Wolkstein, author, Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth and The Magic Orange Tree.

Anderson explores the questions of maturity with depth, sensitivity, and humor, in a voice that is at once touchingly personal and deeply wise. A must read for anyone over 55. ~ Roger Housden, author of the best-selling Ten Poems series, and in 2014, Keeping the Faith Without a Religion.

Sherry Anderson’s wise and poetic new book is an indispensible guide in our youth driven culture. It opens the way for Baby Boomers to ask ourselves the right questions, so we can enter what can be the richest time of our lives. ~ Sandra Maitri, author of The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram: Nine Faces of the Soul, and The Enneagram of Passions and Virtues: Finding the Way Home

Sherry Anderson opened one door when she co-authored The Feminine Face of God. Now she opens another. With honesty, wealth of experience, and penetrating questions, she leads us again. The issue, she says, is not to know the map [of elderhood], but to be the map. These writings are a rich and important resource for all who wonder how to reach the true harvest of their lives. You will not be disappointed. ~ Paula D’Arcy, author of Waking Up To This Day, and Gift of the Red Bird

This book is a harvest of shining wisdom—earthy, funny, lyrical, and very human. Maturity, Anderson says, is as complex and rich as an old-vine wine. And it is hard work—the fruit of a life lived with honesty, soul, and care for others. Stand by and for what you love, she urges, and the miracle will happen! ~ Janine Canan, author of Messages from Amma and She Rises Like the Sun

Here is the book I’ve been waiting for—an expression of hard-earned wisdom that reveals aging as a journey of profound transformation. ~ Rabbi Shefa Gold, Author of The Magic of Hebrew Chant: Healing the Spirit, Transforming the Mind, and Deepening Love

Ripening Time is a wonderful, heart-warming and inspiring book available at a most important time in our culture's evolution. ~ Rev. David Ridge, Unity Living Water Spiritual Community

In Ripening Time, Sherry Anderson's voice inviting us to join her in a rich maturity is indeed the medium and the message: it is warm, thoughtful, gentle, curious, open-minded, knowledgeable, and confident. Perhaps it will help shift the cultural bias from "Over the hill" to "Wow! Enjoying the view." ~ Sylvia Boorstein, author of Happiness Is An Inside Job: Practicing for a Joyful Life