This Is Getting Old: Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity »

Susan Moon is a writer and longtime Zen Buddhist who teaches popular writing workshops, mostly in California. She is the former editor of Turning Wheel: The Journal of Socially Engaged Buddhism. She lives in Berkeley, California.

In this intimate and funny collection of essays on the sometimes confusing, sometimes poignant, sometimes hilarious condition of being a woman over sixty, Susan Moon keeps her sense of humor and she keeps her reader fully engaged. Among the pieces she has included  here are an essay on the gratitude she feels for her weakening bones; observations on finding herself both an orphan and a matriarch following the death of her mother; musings on her tendency to regret the past; thoughts on how not to be afraid of loneliness; appreciation for the inner tomboy; and celebratory advice on how to regard "senior moments" as opportunities to be in the here and now.

Publishers Weekly

In her mid-60s, Bay Area Zen practitioner Moon, former editor of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship’s Turning Wheel magazine, writes, “I wanted to look right into the face of oldness. What is it?” Gentle essays are grouped into three sections: mind/body, relationships, and spirit. Moon uses detail vividly in her determination to make peace with the many failures of brain and body (from forgetting her Social Security number to wondering if she’ll ever have sex again), though not all readers may want to follow her into the intricacies of retinal detachment and an elderly mother on a ventilator. Her best writing occurs when memory, emotion, and spirit coalesce as she recovers parts of herself left behind in childhood or comes to terms with solitude. Overall, the book is long on dignity but a bit short on both Zen and humor, focusing on earnest self-disclosure. But Moon’s honesty about the inner and outer realities of aging conveys an urgent reminder of inevitable loss; indeed, as she reminds us, “I am not getting old alone.” (June)

Introduction ix

Part 1 Cracks in the Mind and Body

Where Did I Put My Begging Bowl? 3

Stain on the Sky 10

Leaving the Lotus Position 21

The Breathing Tube 26

Old Bones 40

All Fall Down 49

Senior Moment, Wonderful Moment 55

Part 2 Changing Relationships

In the Shade of My Own Tree 61

Exchanging Self and Other 70

House of Commons 79

Getting Good at Staying Still 85

Grandmother Mind 93

What If I Never Have Sex Again? 99

Becoming Invisible 103

The Tomboy Returns 108

Part 3 In the Realm of the Spirit

Tea with God 119

I Wasn't My Self 122

You Can't Take It with You 133

The Secret Place 138

Talking to My Dead Mother 144

For the Time Being 153

Alone with Everyone 160

This Vast Life 168

Acknowledgments 173

Credits and Permissions 175