Living the Autumn of Life: Walking through retirement beginnings and endings

Autumn is a time of gains and losses: fruit being harvested, and leaves falling. This book charts the experience of living through both realities, drawn from the author’s own life and from the views of interviewees. Informed by historic and contemporary reading, it offers snapshots of later life, taken against a backdrop of ageism in society and church. George Lings reflects on the identity of the ‘active elderly’, and considers through a biblical lens the challenges and opportunities that this season brings.

‘I’ve been privileged to have had many opportunities to sit and learn from George and Helen over the past 20 years. Reading Living the Autumn of Life feels like those warm, hospitable, brain-stretching chats. It’s studded with honest, personal experiences and concepts to take away and ponder at leisure. I’m glad to have read it while it’s still summer for me, so there’s time for the rich choice of ideas and wisdom to take root for my own autumn.’ Lucy Moore, founder of Messy Church and head of the Growing Faith Foundation

‘George Lings has written the book I should have read ten years ago when I was entering the third age of autumn. He makes a wonderfully readable companion to this important phase of life, giving us rich images and metaphors to help us value these special years as ones of both autumnal glory and inevitable loss, of adventure and letting go. Living the Autumn of Life is packed with wisdom and humanity. It reveals an author with a well-stocked mind, a memory full of rich experience and a spirit full of desire to live autumn well and to commend its fruit to others. I loved it.’ John Pritchard, former Bishop of Oxford

‘We live in a time of gifts, not least the gift of age. But the journey needs guidance. Out of his experience and rooted in scripture, George has given us a guide to these later seasons, which can be long and fruitful. Reading it I found myself better equipped to use the God-given time, and I believe this will be true for you too. Highly recommended!’ Paul Bayes, former Bishop of Liverpool

‘It is tempting to underline so many passages of this book. Drawing on an impressively wide range of authors, Lings has blended his own personal observations of living the autumn of life with those of carefully questioned interviewees. I valued his insights, especially, when it comes to living with regret, describing a significant early childhood bereavement as “one of the negative cards I am likely to have to hold”. It is an approach encapsulated in his invitation: “So, tread with me some sort of middle ground to hold these two themes – glory and loss – in tension with one another.”’ Debbie Thrower, founder of Anna Chaplaincy

‘I can’t remember the last time I read a book that brought tears to my eyes or a smile to my lips more often than this one. I have read other books about “the autumn of life”; this is by far the best I have read, not least for the sane, wise, warm, balanced approach George Lings takes. I have a long (and growing) list of friends around my age to whom I am going to recommend – and if necessary give – this book!’ John Bowen, emeritus professor of evangelism, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto

‘One of the many good things about the book which George Lings has produced is the way in which it – or rather he – invites the reader into a conversation with him. In spite of its deeply theological core, it is nevertheless less of a treatise, more a meditation; not a series of essays but a reflection, a ruminative process which draws the reader in and invites response.’ The Revd Canon Sue Hope, priest, author, tertiary of the Order of the Holy Paraclete

‘George Lings helps us to be realistic about retirement with its challenges and opportunities. It is an easy read and well worth the time. It will help the reader approach retirement or continue living in retirement with a sense of realism, opportunity, and hopefully happiness and fulfilment. Each section of the book ends with a page of application points which are very helpful pointers for reflection and a guide on the way forward.’ Philip Johanson OBE, chief secretary of Church Army, 1990–2006

‘This remarkable book is among the most informative and inspirational books I’ve ever read. It deals with a consequential but often overlooked aspect of our daily lives – old age! Wide-ranging in its scope, covering the different phases of living the autumn years, it is packed full of wisdom and spiritual insight, each of which is full of honesty, humility and humour. It is autobiographical in parts, covering issues of sociology, theology, ecology and urology! A book to read and re-read, so as to learn the art of living the autumn of life, walking through retirement with gratitude and trust, courage and hope. Highly recommended.’ Trevor Miller, former abbot of the Northumbria Community

‘This book is written with disarming honesty and compassion, releasing us to reflect on our own autumn journey. With breadth and clarity it gives us both the wisdom we need to embrace the opportunities of this life season, and also spiritual insights to help us walk with God through its losses, in gratitude and trust. The questions offered at the close of each chapter make this a very useful resource for those involved in spiritual accompaniment and for small groups.’ Jenny Hellyer, spiritual director

‘Once on holiday to France I stopped the car to stare at a field of sunflowers. They were sunflowers as I’d never seen them before: brown, dry, their heads drooping. I later did an online search for sunflowers. Sure enough, all the images that appeared were yellow and perky, their faces towards the sun. Then it struck me. This was simply a different season for the sunflower. This was when they were at their most fruitful, just before harvest. This season was why they were planted in the first place. The drooping sunflowers were not an image of loss or failure, but fulfilment and maturity. George Lings reflects on the autumn of life with characteristic insight, candour and spiritual wisdom. As I begin to see the leaves in my own life turn yellow, red and brown, and as I become a grandparent myself, I’m grateful to George and his cast of companions for these moving missives from the season of mists.’ Mike Starkey, writer and Anglican priest

Reviewed by Richard Frost

George Lings has produced a wonderfully encouraging and reassuring book for anyone in the ‘autumn of life'.

Reflecting on the theme of autumn to describe what others may call the ‘third stage of life’ or ‘retirement’, Lings focuses on the glory and the losses of the season: autumnal colour and falling of leaves. It is a worthy parallel.

The author explores the glories of the season – time for others, new interests, revisiting the good things from the past. But is not afraid to acknowledge the falling leaves – the difficulties of aging, the loss of others and how our own ‘characteristics’ can make themselves more known too!

As well as helpful biblical reflections, the author draws a lot on the work of Paul Tournier (his book Learning to Grow Old is one this reviewer will now be buying…). These are a rich bringing together of wisdom about the continuing value of human life, whatever age and stage we may be at.

After 22 years in parish ministry, the author spent two decades as a researcher for the Church Army before his own retirement. Drawing on the latter area of expertise, Lings makes a candid acknowledgment that his findings from sixteen qualitative interviews with others are not representative of the wider population of senior citizens. Nonetheless those interviews complement the author’s own experience and autobiographical accounts.

The research background also shows itself in lengthy chapters on society and the church, and different theological thinking about trust. For this reviewer, these sections didn’t quite fit with the overall focus of the book, whose strength is in the more person-centred elements.

As one who is (apparently) in the autumn of life, I found it personally affirming. It also served to prompt my own thoughts and reflections on what is to come in the remaining years. I would recommend it to anyone living in or approaching autumn.

Richard Frost is the author of Life with St Benedict and writes a blog at workrestpray.com. He is also the author of five other books.