The Blossoming of Women

Opportunitiesto discover new purpose in our later years are abundant when we learn to meetchallenges as gateways to growth. During a life crisis in her seventies, authorKaren Roberts discovered that voices of encouragement were difficult to findamong the popular paradigms of aging as decline, withdrawal, and disengagement.

To beginto understand our restlessness—a yearning for deeper awareness and connectionin our later years—the Blossoming book opens with a provocative discussion ofaging that examines the frameworks of gender, culture, and human development.By reframing a life crisis in one’s later years as a catalyst for insight andtransformation, we can approach old age as a time of profound personal andinterpersonal growth. Women, in particular, embark on this passage intoelderhood with unique life experiences to guide them.

Thejourney begins once we identify that we have arrived at a pivotal crossroads. TheBlossoming of Women invites you to embark on later life explorations withconfidence and enjoy the process of self-discovery. Engaging questions followeach chapter to assist you on the path to a rewarding new life stage motivatedby personal purpose.

TheBlossoming of Womenincludes interviews with eight women who confronted daunting challenges, yettheir perseverance and inner faith led them to pursue incredible late-lifepassions. Their stories, told with intimacy and grace, will open you to newpossibilities. You will be encouraged to follow the lessons for living beyondloss and growing from crisis and transformation to a deeper self.

Runner-up for Next Generation Indies Book Award 2024 (United States) Runner-up for Chanticleer International Book Awards 2024 (United States) Runner-up for Foreword Indies Book of the Year Awards 2024 (United States)

Karen Roberts’s encouraging self-help book The Blossoming of Women is about passing on one’s wisdom and making a difference in one’s community late in life. This book is written for women who are at least in their sixties, who may no longer have the responsibilities of caring for children, elderly parents, or spouses and who are ready to make the transition from just growing older to becoming an elder.

The bulk of the book features the stories of women who have taken on the roles of elders in their communities, helping others through callings such as using music to heal and comfort, working as a death doula, supporting the homeless, and using art to document the beauty and wisdom of people’s lives. They represent a wide variety of experiences; they are inspirational and instructive, illustrating the possibility of finding new directions late in life. And they serve as guides, modelling change-making.

The Blossoming of Women is a thoughtful and generous self-help guide for women facing late-life changes; it suggests means of writing one’s own robust, fruitful final chapter. -- Foreword Clarion Reviews

-- Karen Roberts

Roberts can inspire, and questions she proposes at each chapter’s end provide stirring calls to action (ex: “What are you afraid of losing? Describe the ambivalence you are experiencing over giving up the life you have known…”). She chose a fascinating group of women with varied life challenges and talents ranging from advocacy for the homeless to professional photographer; readers can find themselves somewhere in that group . . . older women looking for a route to blossoming anew will find rewards in these pages. -- BluInk

-- Karen Roberts
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If only one book on women's aging were to be selected for a library collection, it should be The Blossoming of Women: A Workbook on Growing from Older to Elder. Filled with inspirational and educational opportunities, it promotes a different vision of elder years and retirement that translates not to retiring from life, but entering into another phase of efficiency and meaningful thoughts, actions, and choices. Beautiful nature images throughout support the gentle feel and uplifting spirit of these stories. --D. Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, MidwestBook Review

 

-- Karen Roberts

Karen Roberts draws on her own experience to showcase dynamicwomen who have achieved remarkable goals in life. Includesphilosophical, spiritual, and healing advice and exercises for readersthat evoke further contemplation. A beautifully-expressed salute toolder women, and very sound counsel for women at any age. ― Chanticleer

-- Karen Roberts

An inspiring celebration of aging, discovery, and acceptance of change for women.

Roberts’s debut pulsates with warmth as she examines women’s roles intheir later years, characterizing her writing as “a radicalreconsideration of what it means to grow old.” She’s as direct as she iscompassionate, balancing her criticism of the West’s treatment of agingpopulations—“ in contemporary America… older members are oftenforgotten or placed in retirement homes,” she decries—with tenderencouragement for female readers to treat “aging [as] so much more thanthe gradual decline toward death.” Roberts urges women to considertransforming into an “elder” rather than just becoming “older”: elders,she contends, use the crises of aging as catalysts for new beginnings,whereas those who choose to simply grow older count the years but missthe magic along the way.

Theguide functions as a self-help/workbook fusion, with moments for guidedreflection at the end of each chapter. Those introspective prompts areinvaluable, as Roberts asks readers to contemplate a host of topics,ranging from the fear of losing youthful attractiveness[20] tocultivating their small, inner voice as a life guide. In seeking newpaths, Roberts contends that old identities must fall by the wayside toallow maturing women to experience a fresh way of being—essentiallybecoming “pilgrims without a home.” Roberts contends that the start ofwomen’s blossoming comes when they learn to ask less of themselves infavor of discovering more about their true nature.

Thoughthe book is aimed primarily at women, Roberts offers all readersindispensable advice on aging. Elders possess a distinct, pricelessgift, she writes: they’re the storytellers, awash with wisdom and “thememories of what happened before.” She shares interviews of differentwomen to illustrate the lessons they learned along the way, and leavesreaders with her own sage advice, both stating directly anddemonstrating through her life and work that “becoming an elder is adynamic process that both redefines one’s sense of self and requires anopen acceptance of change.” -- Booklife Reviews

-- Karen Roberts Booklife

Karen Marie Roberts received an MS degree in human developmentafter being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1990. Her interests moved fromalternative healing to gerontology and stages of aging. In graduate school,this became a concentration in creative longevity and phenomenology. Prior to this,Karen was a Director of Research for a French investment firm in New York City.She attended Wellesley College, UC Berkeley, and Fielding Graduate School.Karen travels extensively and has witnessed firsthand theresiliency of older women in other cultures. They manage vineyards in Chile andsheep farms in New Zealand, regardless of age. They can farm on steep hillsidesand smile at the same time. In other countries where the wisdom of eldersprevails, she was privileged to experience the respect given to thespirituality of females in elderhood. She observed the rituals of passage fromthis life to the next, as elders, closer to the spiritual journey beyond, aregiven assistance with their daily loads.When not traveling, Karen enjoys the companionship of herdog, Scout, and her horse, Farao, who help to keep her in the flow of nature. Shebelieves nature is our teacher; it can be harsh, bringing sadness when we don’taccept that life is about to change. Then again, when others are in pain andsuffer the indignities of physical aging, she can overlook her own pain in theever-present source of beauty that nature offers. As a photographer, Karenalways discovers something fascinating in the smallest of species: an insectwith unlikely eyes or a tiny flower with an even smaller inner center.She also relishes solitude. Times of prayer and gratitudegive her grace, and she has had to quiet the urge to stay busy, to impressothers with her usefulness, and accept that she cannot do as much. She is ableto follow her inner voice by quieting the “should”.When not walking her dog on the beach or grooming her horse,Karen enjoys life in Santa Ynez, California, with her life partner. She hopesto master her newfound game of Mahjong, which brings her together with others,making life richer and more joyful.Dana Jaffeattended Bryn Mawr College and earned master’s degrees in urban planning fromHarvard and history of art from Columbia. Her friendship with Karen developedinto a special creative collaboration that led to the publication of Journeys:Healing Through Nature’s Wisdom and The Blossoming of Women. In bothprojects, Dana discovered a love for supporting self-expression and the writingprocess as an editor and co-author. She and her husband live in Santa Barbara,where they share the joys of beach walks, toy trains, and bedtime stories withtheir young son.

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