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Sometimes We Dance Alone

SOMETIMES WE DANCE ALONE
Your Next Years Can Be Your Best Years!

by Edith McCall
Hardcover, 180 pages, $16.95
ISBN 0-9636620-0-7

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A LIFE ALONE NEED NEVER BE A LIFE OF LONELINESS...
You, too, can make this exciting journey from loneliness to joy--no matter what your age!

All About Sometimes We Dance Alone

If you are one of the 23 million Americans who face life alone ... or one of the millions more who fear it may someday happen to you ... come spend some time with Edith McCall, and take a journey from loneliness to joy! At the age of fifty, Edith found herself overwhelmed by the frightening prospect of growing older alone. Then, in the depths of her confusion and despair, she found the inner strength God grants us all if we remember to ask Him. Its glorious light has been guiding her ... for the last thirty years! In its unfailing glow, she has found joy and fulfillment through work, travel, hobbies, and a daily search for small and large experiences that nourish her soul and her mind. And she has done it all on her own!

SOMETIMES WE DANCE ALONE is the inspiring story of how she made the years after fifty her best years--and it is a handbook on how you can do it too. Share her secret and discover that, no matter what your age, circumstances, or state of health, you can expand your horizons and find pleasure and fulfillment.

Come celebrate life with Edith McCall...and turn the rest of your days into a dance of joy!

Praise for Sometimes We Dance Alone

"Edith McCall has sage advice for people who want to make the most of their lives alone."
Mature Outlook

"Often alone, but never lonely, McCall, an octogenarian and single grandmother, has written a warm and spiritual book about enjoying life without a partner."
American Express, Senior Membership Horizons

"Sometimes We Dance Alone is McCall's inspiring story of how she made the years after fifty her best years--and how others can too. It's an inspiring book that deals positively with the timely and important subject of aging."
Ozarks Senior Living

"Edith McCall is a living example of the joys of personal growth through 'following your bliss.' Her book will inspire others to undertake their own excursions."
Lydia Bronte, Author of The Longevity Factor

"Sometimes We Dance Alone seems to strike a universal chord and to be in harmony with all ages."
Lakeland, Florida Ledger

"What a lovely expedition! Edith McCall takes us on journeys of the heart. Sometimes We Dance Alone has something wise and warm to offer every reader. Its pages are a treasure chest filled with encouragement, practical advice, and lovely possibilities."
Joan Wester Anderson, Author of Where Angels Walk and Where Miracles Happen

"For thirty years, [McCall] has found joy and fulfillment through work, travel, hobbies, and a daily search for small and large experiences that nourish her soul and her mind. And she has done it all on her own.... Share her secrets and discover that, no matter what your age, circumstances, or state of health, you can expand your horizons and find pleasure and fulfillment."
Center for Books on Aging, Washington, DC

"The author speaks to the twenty-three million Americans over fifty who face life alone. She offers encouragement, practical advice, and possibilities. A list of selected organizations and publications adds to the book's usefulness."
Wilson Library Bulletin

"Sometimes We Dance Alone portrays its author as a jaunty gentlewoman of deep religious faith, with a great-grandmother's respect for tradition and the venturesome soul of a child. It is a blend of autobiography, travel and personal philosophy that speaks directly to other seniors."
Senior Circuit, St. Louis, MO

From the Prologue of Sometimes We Dance Alone

INVITATION TO THE DANCE
Alone need never mean lonely

At some point in our adult years, more and more of us find ourselves living alone and lacking a partner in the "dance of life." Such a situation may have come about by choice or as part of God's plan for us. In either case, most of us have enough talent and energy to do some very lively dancing, mentally if not physically.

Surely, if God has kept us here, it is because He recognizes that we have much of value to contribute to this old world--and much to learn from it. It's time that we recognized it too, and approached each new day and year as a precious gift from God.

Today an ever-growing number of people live to 100 or more in good mental and physical health, able to take care of themselves. Why, then, do so many of us look upon turning forty, fifty, sixty, and older with such trepidation? As I write this, I am forty the second time around and, by choice, have been on my own since fifty-one. For me, life is still a lively dance, with only occasional intervals when the music slows to a languorous beat.

We choose our own rhythms--to urge us on to our feet or to lull us into nonparticipation in the dance of life. Or perhaps we have chosen to turn off the music entirely because "fate" has left us without a partner. So then, when someone offers us an opportunity to break that pattern, possibly suggesting a voyage, a day trip, a class, a hobby--any activity that would make us venture beyond our familiar routine--fear of the unknown and untried makes us dwell on the worst possibilities. And we end up continuing in our old, tiresome rut.

Or we could be enthusiastic about what is to come, like the woman traveling alone on a cruise ship who heard Big Band music drifting through a closed door at the far end of the corridor. Thinking herself unobserved, she danced her way to the closed doors. There she came to an abrupt stop, resumed the dignity she deemed proper for a woman of her mature years, opened the door and went on her way, undoubtedly looking forward to a pleasant evening. I'm willing to venture that she had one!

Do we choose, like that woman, to take a chance on what might lie ahead and dance alone to a lively tune? A precious gift from God, life is a dance all the way from birth to that lovely, invisible existence beyond this earth. The joy and adventure of life come to those who hear the sound of God's inspiring rhythms and get up to dance, even though they may do it alone. And whether they can dance in the world beyond their home or in the world within its walls, the tempo they choose will open the door to delightful adventures and new and rewarding experiences.

That has been my own choice, and this book is a sharing of some of the adventures, and a few misadventures, that I have had in my years of dancing alone. Some came as needed lessons, but more came as pure and lasting joy. All of them have enriched my life, and I hope that they will spur you on to enriching adventures of your own--whether around the corner, far away, or in the one place where all things are possible--your imagination.

Let's open our minds to hear the music of life. And let's keep on dancing...until the heavenly chorus pipes us home!

About the Author

Octogenarian Edith McCall is living proof of her philosophy that every day is a gift from God, and we can enjoy and make the most of it all by ourselves. In 1955, after a distinguished career as an educator, she moved to the Ozarks to pursue her lifetime dream of writing full-time. The award-winning author of fifty books, and coauthor of thirty, she was a trailblazer in writing interesting textbooks and entertaining novels in controlled vocabulary for readers with learning disabilities.

McCall's broad interests are reflected in her popular local lectures and her many articles for adults, which have been published in anthologies and a wide range of newspapers and national magazines, including American Heritage, The Instructor, American History, and the Kansas City Times. A four-time winner of the Missouri Writers' Guild Book Award, McCall was also named a Distinguished Alumnus by the University of Wisconsin in 1988 in recognition of her contributions to education and her body of work. In 1996 she was inducted into the Writers Hall of Fame.

McCall has two daughters, five grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. When she isn't traveling, she can be found at home in Hollister, Missouri, working at her computer on her next writing project, or relaxing with her gardening, woodcarving, birdwatching ... or a good book.

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