Hour of the Wolf: An Experiment in Ageless Living

by Paul R. Lipton

No day is ever wasted that can be lived consciously and to the full. 2 a.m. The hour of the wolf. You wake up filled with regrets, and haunted by dashed dreams, wondering what went wrong. For Paul Lipton, a successful lawyer in his sixties, his mind’s howling in the darkness reminded him that time was slipping away. Perhaps partly because both his parents had died when they were young, and because he had already experienced his own serious health crisis, he wanted to be sure to live each day to the fullest. He decided he would start viewing each day afresh and in the now as a do-over, each night dying and each morning being reborn. His philosophy was to say, “I am me today,” and ask, “How do I choose to live in the now?” His solution to these sleepless nights became an adventure, and an experiment in ageless living. To silence the howls of the wolf, Lipton took off in the footsteps of his fictional hero, Larry Darrell in W. Somerset Maugham’s novel The Razor’s Edge. His journey took him first to the Himalayas. He then continued his external and internal travels that included crossing the ice fields of Mont Blanc, a shamanic retreat at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, and motorcycle adventures across Florida’s Alligator Alley, the Rocky Mountains, and the back roads of North Carolina. In the process, he discovered he was not a prisoner of the past. His changed perspective had given him a new lease on life.

206 pages, Paperback

First published May 12, 2013

Reviews

[Friederike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am grateful I read this book.
For myself who has always felt a little out of step and a little out of place with the rest of the world this book was very comforting and reassuring while still offering some great ideas towards easily made changes and room for self improvement.
I very much appreciated the pop culture references but also the historical insights (will have to research Mulberry harbors now). I also have to admit that today, During my annual trip to the Houston Zoo, when I saw the Rhino excibit, I could not help but think of Paul. They are truly majestic animals.
I feel inspired to work out tomorrow, learn something new, and just keep on being me.
The only thing I feel that I may want to critize is the way the author speaks of the meaning of money. I would love to go to Nepal and the Swiss Alps and fancy retreats, but it is definately not something I can afford in the immediate future. Neither is being on a motorcycle. However, my campingtrips in the Texas Hill Country and my used but still nice bicycle will still provide me with plenty of ways to stay connected to nature and myself. It may have just been refreshing for the author to maybe incorporate simplistic get-back to yourself ways in this book.

[Christel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to review this. Although there are some really good things in this book which deals with life passing so many by, I was distracted by repetitiveness, things being in the wrong chapter and how things played out within some chapters like the story of the elephant getting shot which was messily presented. There were several mentions of the mid-life crisis and the red sports car. One would have been sufficient. A very good editor could have trimmed from 1/4 to 1/3 of the book and made it a tighter and much better read. That being said, this is a book for aging yuppies with a lot of angst because they chased money over living in the moment. So many people won't relate to so much in here because of living in survival mode. There are universal truths, but they are not presented in a universal way. I've met versions of the author. I'd like their money, but not what they had to do to get it, so I'd rather be me. I don't wake up in the middle of the night with angst, worry about aging or dying. I didn't have to hire adventure companies or go annually to Esalen for retreats.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book can be boiled down to 2 words: carpe diem. While a nice life philosophy, many other writers have discussed this for millennia. Many of them far more eloquently than Lipton had. Overall, it was quite disappointing and brought very little new to the table.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

2013 : When I read the description of Hour of the Wolf I felt it was a book I needed to read. I can totally relate to the author's experiences of the witching hour, or as he calls it, the hour of the wolf. Even though the author does not approach life from a Christian perspective like I do, I find his ideas and thoughts inspiring and helpful. For me, Hour of the Wolf is the right book at the right time.

[Andy Plonka · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was much better than I thought it would be when I started it. obviously if you have a terminal illness the motivation for living each day as it comes, but if you don't as you age you be more content if you have some sort of plan for each of your remaining time on this planet.