More than 10,000 people turn 50 every day in the U.S.; how do they handle this shift? Claiming Your Place at the Fire invites this group of "new elders" to ask four key questions: Who am I? New elders synthesize and transfer the wisdom of the past into the present. Where do I belong? They have a powerful sense of where they have come from, where they are, and where they are going. How do I bring my passions alive? They rejoice in rediscovering their life's work, their calling, their vocation. What is my life's purpose? Freed from imposed schedules and demands, new elders now find the freedom to create their lives anew. This timely book describes how new older adults can rekindle the good life, relight the fire within, and share that warmth and light with others.

"If you've just received your AARP membership card and wonder what comes next, you might find some help from Leider and Shapiro, co-authors of Repacking Your Bags. They put it a bit more lyrically, using their fire image: this book is for 'people who are ready to stoke the wisdom gained in the first half of their lives to burn with a brighter sense of purpose in the second half.' Drawing on what Leider learned while sitting around the fire with tribal elders in Tanzania, he refers to his readers as 'new elders,' meaning people 'who never stop reinventing themselves.' This isn't a self-help book, exactly: it doesn't offer advice on activities for elders or where to retire. It is a guide to an internal, spiritual search for the purpose of one's older years. Readers who don't mind the New Age-y tone and the references to Ram Dass and dream interpretation as a source of wisdom may find inspiration here for answering the central questions that can guide them to a fulfilling elder life." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

From the authors of the bestselling "Repacking Your Bags" and "Whistle While You Work" comes a new paradigm of successful aging for men and women entering into the second half of their lives.