Finding Beauty in the Gray: Stories and Verse From the Third Age
Podcast: Download (Duration: 50:02 — 45.9MB)
In this episode 378, we feature Hugh Willard, a psychotherapist, singer-songwriter, and author with a career spanning more than thirty years, and his book “Finding Beauty in the Gray: Stories and Verse From the Third Age,” which Kirkus Reviews calls “a thoughtful, upbeat, and accessible…primer on understanding and enjoying middle age.” The book is filled with stories, essays, and poems that address the common themes of identity, meaning, relationships, and exploring creativity. It’s a book for Third Agers—a term we will discuss—and a book for those who wrestle with tackling what’s next as they move into and through their Third Age.
Show discussion highlights:
- Does creativity come naturally to Hugh or with work?
- What it means to be a Third Ager
- Research for Finding Beauty in the Gray
- Finding purpose in life
- The busyness of advancing age
- Exploring the health benefits of gratitude
- A reading from the book
- Exploring creativity
- The vulnerability of the craft of writing
Author bio:
Hugh J. Willard is a psychotherapist, singer-songwriter, and author with a career spanning more than thirty years. He has developed and taught courses on exploring identity, meaning, and creativity in the second half of life for numerous Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes, including those at the Universities of Duke, Georgia, North Carolina State and UNC-Asheville. Hugh’s published works include a children’s chapter book series known as the Goodwill Vulture’s Club, a YA novel titled Degotoga, and a novella titled Clive’s Crossing. He is currently working on his MFA in creative nonfiction at Bay Path University. Hugh also has a podcast series titled Aging Well: Finding Beauty in the Gray.
Learn more about the author and their books HERE.
Death by Podcasting
Support the show by ordering Death by Podcasting, a mystery novella by Sarah Archer and Landis Wade, because podcasting can be a dangerous business.
Learn More and order your copy: https://books2read.com/u/mKVrvy
The Write Quotes Series:
Support the show by purchasing one of more of the eight books in The Write Quote series, a collection of writing quote books compiled from 500+ interviews with bestselling, award-winning, and hard-working authors.
Learn more about our series of quote books and download Book 1 for free at https://charlottereaderspodcast.com/writequotes/
Newsletter:
Subscribe to our newsletter for free HERE:
https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/79263/78112905026864634/share