The Women We Become: Myths, Folktales, and Stories About Growing Older

by Ann Thomas

In many cultures, women are revered as they grow older. Their wisdom, insight, and strengths are recognized as treasuers to be shared. Our Western culture is different—as women age they are frequently ignored and cast aside by a youth-oriented society. For millions of women facing midlife, the prospect of getting older is intimidating, bleak, and anything but a source of power. Now, in this magical new book, author Ann Thomas uses myths, folktales, and stories to help women get in touch with their spiritual selves as they move into and through the second half of life.
The Women We Become explores the difficult and sometimes frightening aspects of aging, and reveals the tasks or pathways toward meaning and fulfillment in old age. Chapters

• The Reality of Death
• Accepting Life's Limits
• Relating to the Dark Feminine
• The Search for Meaning

About the Author

Ann G. Thomas, Ed.D. is an interpretive storyteller and licensed psychotherapist in private practice in Northern California. She has worked with women in midlife and beyond for more than thirty years, and has served on the boards of organizations providing services to the elderly.

Genres: Nonfiction, Short Stories

304 pages, Hardcover

First published October 23, 1996

Reviews

[Cynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. I had a desire to read traditional stories this year. I heeded that.desire. I had no expectations. Then life being what it is threw me a curve ball. I am brusied, not knocked down. The wisdom of these stories help. This book in particular seems to be a keeper, a book I will refer to again and again.

About this year's reading. I have read stories and commentary of Clarissa Pinkola Estés in Women Who Run With the Wolves. Now I have read stories and commentary of psychotherapist Ann G. Thomas in The Women We Become: Myths, Folktales, and Stories About Growing Older. I appreciate both writers. Clarissa Pinkola Estés takes me to some deep dark roots of complex mysterious wise women. Ann G. Thomas tells me of stories of wisdom, tells me how the stories can be of pragmatic assistance to complex wise women. The pragmatics are more useful to me right now. To use the language of Ann G. Thomas, I am in the forest gathering up all my parts and hoping to put them back to together. I seek a stronger and more flexible self. I am not in trouble. I am improving. My friends need not be worried 🐣

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I'm not an old woman yet, but I enjoyed reading this Jungian psychotherapist's take on the applications of stories to a woman's aging process. She pulls apart every detail in these stories into their archetypal components and draws meaning for reflection and introspection. The in depth reading often rubbed me the wrong way- sometimes a story is just a story or they use the number 3 for reasons of flow, drama, tension, etc., but I appreciated what she was trying to do in the end, so I quit squabbling over details. The case studies were helpful illustrations, though they were always about people with horrible childhoods (big surprise). In the end it gave me some different ways to think about my own growth and helped me think through some of the older women in my life's behaviors. And that is always nice.

[Christine]

This book has some amazing wisdom about the path to finding your spirit. I think it applies to everyone on this planet, although the archetypes she uses might be more feminine.

[Marge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, mostly Jungian, interpretations of stories relating to aging.

[Holly Friesen · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a 65 year old woman learning to embrace this stage of my life I found this book to be full of jewels. The ability to draw from past experiences and review the different parts of ourselves is a gift as we age. There is a richness to our life’s tapestry that begins to appear and if we allow this process to unfold as it does and will this is a time of great inner discovery that both enriches and emboldens the soul.

[Vicky · Rating 1 out of 5]

I kept thinking I would read something that would prove worthwhile. I didn't. I don't recommend it.