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My current project is a new self-help book dealing with the issues of aging with the working title of “My Name Is Earl and I’m Old”/A 12-Step Program for the Rest of the Journey."

Mindfulness. Living in the moment. DOing what I'm doing. A good night's sleep. Being OK with not waking up again.

"The Seven Samurai," Akira Kurosawa's classic buddy flick. Gregory Peck's "Gentlemen's Agreement" and "To love a Mockingbird." Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein," "Blazing Saddles" and "The Producers." Rob Reiner's "The Princess Bride." And last but not least, Tom Hanks' and Meg Ryan's "Joe Vs. the Volcano." I love movies! If life can't be like the movies, I'll take the movies.

www.lionelfisher.com

Old age never comes at a good time. No one ever woke up exclaiming, "Hooray, I'm old!" One gray day the lengthening shadows of our lives simply find us deep in uncharted territory, lost and apprehensive, groping for a path through an emotional wilderness we blithely denied we would ever have to travel. Wisdom, we also assume, automatically accompanies old age--the insight born of experience that provides all the answers. Then age shows up by itself, leaving us up life's creek without a map, compass or paddle. Tragically, it's not the end of the journey that gives us pause for reflection. It's the realization we made the trip with boundless but mindless energy, paying little attention to where it was all heading, failing to prepare for what it would be like when we finally got there. I'm writing a book for those embarked on that final journey past meridian. If you're one of them, particularly if you've prepared well for that awesome passage, would you share your thoughts and feelings, instruction and advice, wisdom, insights and inspiration on growing old with courage, grace, dignity and joy? Join the conversation. Be part of my book.

Celebrating Time Alone: Stories of Splendid Solitude (Beyond Words Publishing, 2001) On Your Own: A Guide o Working Happily, Productively and Successfully from Home (Prentice Hall, 1995) The Craft of Corporate Journalism (Nelson-Hall, 1992)

"Nine-tenths of wisdom consists of being wise in time." - Teddy Roosevelt

A former journalist, freelance writer, newspaper columnist, corporate communicator, and advertising creative director-copy chief, I lived and worked in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Miami and Portland, Oregon, before moving to Southwest Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula in 1994, and have written three self-hinder books: Celebrating Time Alone: Stories of Splendid Solitude (Beyond Words Publishing, 2001), On Your Own: A Guide to Working Happily, Productively and Successfully from Home (Prentice Hall, 1995), and The Craft of Corporate Journalism (Nelson-Hall, 1992). I also write several self-syndicated humor/lifestyle/seniors columns including one on the art of being alone.

Packing for that awesome Trip of a Lifetime we all must take.