Most of us have a fear of growing old. When we think about aging we conjure images of sickness, weakness and ugly wrinkled face and body. The health and beauty industry capitalizes on this fear. We often see advertisements claiming a certain product will be able to stop time and delay aging so we can feel and look young as long as possible. For professor and bestselling author Susan Avery Stewart, Ph.D., however, the later years is a gift that should be celebrated. She details the eleven qualities that ripen with age such as audacious authenticity, creative ingenuity, necessary fierceness, self-transcending generosity, and a growing capacity to savor life in her new bestselling book “Winter’s Graces: The Surprising Gifts of Later Life”.

Through Winter’s Graces, Susan Stewart shares stories of her own and that of older women’s experiences to reveal the gifts that manifest with late-life. Being a psychology professor and psychotherapist, Susan Stewart offers a scientific perspective about growing old and how this last season of our lives can be the most fulfilling of all. Much of the scientific research that we are exposed to focuses on the decline that comes with aging. This book is a welcome relief for aging women who will find research validated and inspiring stories about the gifts that come with late-life. Through this book, readers will know that much of what we fear about growing old like dementia and debilitating frailty are actually the outliers or exceptions and not what most people experience.

After just a month of being published, Susan Stewart’s Winter’s Graces already climbed to the top spot of the bestseller’s list at Petaluma’s Copperfield’s Book Store. I recommend Winter’s Graces if you are looking for a perfect holiday gift for your loved ones.