Debbie speaks with bestselling author Mary Pipher, 76, about happiness, forgiveness, surrendering, and old age.
* This is the last episode in 2023. Back on Jan. 26, 2024! *
Debbie talks to Mary Pipher, a psychologist and bestselling author of 11 books including the ground-breaking Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. She was the first psychologist to recognize and articulate why life was difficult for adolescent girls and why so many of them felt bad about themselves.
More recently, she has written Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing As We Age, about women navigating the transition from middle age to old age (the topic of this podcast!).
In 2022, she published a memoir, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence. In her new book, just out in paperback, Mary, now 76, talks about her difficult childhood and her relationship with her parents, the importance of family and community, living in a small town in Nebraska, and what the particular challenges of getting old are. She also talks about forgiveness, about adopting Buddhism and her definition of happiness. Per the title, she’s obsessed with light, through trees, on walks, at certain times of day, in certain rooms, and in memories — and how the light makes her feel happy and complete.
She says her knowledge about happiness comes from being someone who has struggled with sadness and anxiety much of her life, something that resonates strongly with Debbie.
This is a great episode. Mary articulates so well what it’s really like to get old and yet still feel so alive.
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Don't miss the Behind The Scenes essay on Substack accompanying this episode
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