The Women We Become: Myths, Folktales, and Stories about Growing Older

We might not recognize ourselves in the face regarding us from the mirror of age, but Ann G. Thomas embraces it. In exchanges with the Old Woman who looks out at her from the mirror, Ann confronts the fears that tempt us to deny our aging. She reveals the strength and comfort that are ours if we will only acknowledge and accept ourselves as we are, and as we are becoming. Thomas interweaves tales from the Brothers Grimm and the Bible with Native American lore and myths from Africa, Europe, and Asia; she embroiders them with insights from modern psychology to illuminate their meaning. The patchwork quilt that she produces will change the way you look at aging even while it warms your heart. In The Women We Become, Thomas achieves for the whole woman what Clarissa Pinkola Estes accomplished for the Wild Woman Archetype in Women Who Run with the Wolves: a true, mythical portrait of the woman looking back at us from the mirror.