By Janet E. Miller, PhD, CRE
On the Season 3 premiere (October 2024) of Wiser Than Me podcast, Julia Louis-Dreyfus sits down with visionary scientist and conservationist Jane Goodall. Toward the end of the discussion, Julia asks Jane if she has ever done a life review.
Julia had recently interviewed Jane Fonda who shared about doing a life review, going back over her life to understand her life fully and understand where she is now and where she could be in the future. Jane Fonda was now a huge fan of life reviews. (Read AARP’s summary of the interview.)
Jane Goodall replied that she always knew where she was going.
“At a certain point it hit me, and this may sound strange, but I truly believe I was put on this planet with a mission,” said Jane.
Uncovering Patterns
Are you a Jane Goodall, knowing where you were, where you are and where you are going? Or are you like most and cannot comprehend your life in a concise way?
People often wonder about the meaning of life in general and about the meaning of their own lives in particular. As we age, these contemplations about meaning often feel more urgent.
Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
That is, one should think about one’s life and what one is doing with the gift of life rather than going by routinized patterns.
Wake up, coffee, exercise, shower, work, lunch, more work, chores, dinner, reading, bed, and repeat the next day. You may go through the motions of living but what is the overall pattern, the highlights and challenges that make your life something special? Are you skeptical that there is and has always been a pattern?
A life review is a process during which a person systematically goes through the life lived.
After completing the Older Adult Ministry Certificate and a capstone project through Columbia Theological Seminary, I led a series of life review classes at the church I attend.
While there can be various focus for a life review, the goal of our church’s classes was for participants to grasp what the purpose of their life was and where to go from here. By looking back and examining the past, one can look forward, figuring out what can be done next that is fulfilling.
One participant in the sessions was skeptical that her life had a pattern. However, as she thought deeply week by week about her life, she felt sure that there was a divine pattern, even taking into consideration a few devastating challenges that she had suffered. She said she felt more connected to existence now that she had identified a pattern.
Mapping Your Memories
There are countless methods and books, but to give you a sense of what is involved, I will describe one practice from my capstone project.
Take a sheet of paper and fold it in half horizontally. Mark lines showing age groups such as 0-18, 19-40, 41- 60, and 61 and up as shown below. Mark the upper half to be positive memories and the bottom half to be negative memories. The middle is a neutral axis.
Going chronologically through your life experiences, mark positive and negative memories with dots on the paper in the appropriate rectangle. Start with “I was born…” and end with “And now I am here.”
Place extremely positive or negative events farther from the neutral axis.
Connect the dots from left to right to give yourself a visual of your life. Then, take time to consider what made the memories positive or negative.
On another paper, write a brief summary or succinct sentence of each event including important information such as context and other people involved in the experience.
For example, at age 17, while I was considering what to do with my life, I met a woman in the US Army. I had never known anyone in the military service but ended up joining the US Navy. This chance meeting was a springboard for me to eventually travel all over the world, building a worldview of people and places that I would not have otherwise had. My worldview has spurred my mission work both in the church and through organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and affected my financial support to organizations.
Of course, we believe God has a role in our lives. In addition to reviewing your life’s path, then, imagine God was with you, perfecting you, over your life’s difficulties. The pattern you are working to uncover is the pattern God had for you all along. Trace your finger along the path of the connected dots and give a prayer of gratitude for the life that you have. Ask for insight into any of the experiences you have noted but did not understand. Be open to unexpected answers.
Maybe you are not like Jane Goodall, having a sense of purpose your whole life, but the pattern of your life is there just under the surface waiting to be found to surprise and delight you.
Further Reading on Life Reviews
Books
The Gift to Listen, the Courage to Hear, by Cari Jackson
Remembering Your Story (Revised Edition), by Richard L. Morgan
The Healing Art of Storytelling, by Richard Stone
Articles
A ‘Life Review’ Can Be Powerful at Any Age, by Emily Laber-Warren
Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development, by Saul McLeod
Janet E. Miller is a graduate of Columbia Theological Seminary’s Older Adult Ministry Certificate program. She is a commissioned ruling elder, serving the Presbytery of the Miami Valley (PMV), Dayton, Ohio in outreach to their retired clergy and their spouses. In her home church of Bath Presbyterian, she is on Session and serves as the Mission chair.
This article originally appeared in the 2025 Older Adult Ministry Resource Guide.