The Library will host a virtual author talk with Rebecca Milliken who will speak about her memoir Gaining Altitude: Retirement & Beyond and the saga of her odyssey of retirement after she had turned 60, a journey that included changing much more in her life than she had anticipated. In Gaining Altitude, she invites the reader to accompany her as she recounts the highs and lows of laying the groundwork for retirement, making the leap, and finding her way to what lay beyond.

The journey she describes is one without a playbook: the ambivalence and second-guessing, the leap and the limbo that followed – opening the way for the surprising and even exhilarating experience of free fall and freedom, then a “rewirement” – the discovery of an entirely new avocation – writing.

Rebecca Milliken enjoyed a forty-year career as a teacher, arts therapist, licensed professional counselor, and clinical researcher and writer in Washington D.C. She spends her summers at Mt. Desert Island, ME. In 2012, Rebecca took a leap and closed her clinical practice without knowing what would come next. Since then, she has devoted herself to exploring the possibilities that life offers in retirement. Inspired by her research and her own experience, she wants to encourage others to embrace rather than dread this time of life. Since she retired, she has been able to spend more and more time on Mt. Desert Island, Maine. For more about Rebecca Milliken, please visit her website at rebeccamilliken.com.

Rebecca’s memoir is available to pre-order from the Library for $16. To purchase the book and to indicate inscription details, call 207-244-7065 or email programs@swhplibrary.org. For more information about the program or questions, call the Library at 207-244-7064.