Autumnal Days

Essays, stories, and guidance for maintaining courage and integrity in the second half of life, from bestselling author and Jungian psychoanalyst Dr. James Hollis

Often, we’re told that aging must be avoided and delayed, denying its inevitability and therefore its wisdom. In this book, beloved author and teacher James Hollis embraces the perils and the wonders of stepping into one’s autumnal days. Hollis invites us to ask fundamental questions about life, agency, grace, and forgiveness through the lens of maturation.

“Every choice made, not made, brings about consequences,” writes Hollis, “and the widening ripples of each intersect influence us, and alter the texture of our hours, whether we know it or not.” Autumnal Days guides us through not only the importance of this recognition, but also the necessity of acceptance and compassion in the face of life’s many shortcomings. Through essays and questions for reflection, Hollis teaches us to meet regret as a compass for moral action, to make creativity a fundamental principle for life, to discern beauty everywhere and amidst everything, and to maintain ownership of our souls.

Filled with stories, myths, philosophies, Jungian analysis, and Hollis’s charming voice, Autumnal Days reminds us that the world is a vast canvas and we fill it with energetic scenarios that drive our souls, paint it, enact it, and populate it.