The Third Season
Seniors now comprise nearly one quarter of Canada’s population. This startling statistic surprises many, including the seniors who find themselves within this category. Many retirees are little prepared to deal with the physical and cultural components that encompass the privilege of living a retired life. The Third Season explores the intimate truths of an aging senior woman, whose life choices and understandings have formed her present reality.
Growing up in the 1950’s and becoming a wife and mother in the 1960’s, the author makes life choices within the context of her time. Many of the paths she took were good ones. Others were reactionary according to the pressure of world events and familial shifts around her. From the luxury of retirement, she grapples with how these choices led to her existing physical and emotional health. Through gentle and open thoughtfulness, she steps out of societal expectations to embrace her truths.
Excerpt from The Third Season
On an evening when farm machines rumble along the side road, scattering gravel in their haste, and the brown thrasher fairly drenches the pines with his escalating scales, I hear my doctor's prescription to baby myself a while longer, to rest the limbs that grind against bone and to open healing space into a body now in its seventies. The ferns unfurl without my urging. A robin bends its head into the indecipherable movement beneath the grass. I walk around my yard, sipping a Cabernet of regret, appreciating the glory around me and how insignificant is my part within it. My fingers itch with impatient denial.
Endorsements for The Third Season
The Third Season chronicles the challenges and joys of aging with tenderness, humour and grace. Lynn’s exquisite observations of self, family and place are complemented by her poems, enhancing the already lyrical prose. As I shared Lynn’s journey through her eighth decade (which I’m also inhabiting), I felt I had found a wise and understanding friend. A book to savour.
- Liz Zetlin, inaugural Owen Sound Poet Laureate, author of Prompted by Happiness
The Third Season is unsentimental and starkly honest, making a compelling read. A great book, well told. I laughed. I cried. I loved it.
- Geoff Bowes, award winning actor, author of Open up the Wall
Published 2021
119 De Baets St.,
Winnipeg MB R2J 3R9
publishing@wordalivepress.ca
