This Week’s Featured Creator
This week, I’m delighted to introduce Jane Duncan Rogers, the writer behind Embracing Ageing.
Quick Introduction
Getting to know Jane’s inspiring work has been genuinely delightful.
Drawing on both professional expertise and deeply personal experience, Jane offers readers a gentle gateway to embracing life, ageing, and every stage of life’s journey.
There’s an ever-present stream of gratitude, kindness, and wisdom flowing through Jane’s writing, inviting readers to embrace life’s most meaningful conversations with greater curiosity, courage, and appreciation for the preciousness of life.
This is the perfect time to settle in with your favorite beverage and enjoy getting to know Jane as much as I have.
Conversation with Jane Duncan Rogers
What is the heart of your Substack, and what do you hope readers experience when they spend time there?
I was going to say it’s about ageing, but actually I think that is rather a funnel through which I reflect, inspire, learn and rejoice in life. Ageing in itself as a topic means you also (at least in my book) have to include death, ie no more life, and that ironically brings us TO life more than we realize! Hence appreciating what we have got, rather than feeling sad about what we haven’t.
I hope readers get a taste of that when they come to my site. I often get told they like the way I write, and often feel inspired by it, which is a lovely thing to hear.
I also hope readers experience a certain irreverence in my style, and can laugh with me at the predicament we find ourselves in – ageing with only one way out!
What inspired you to begin writing or creating on Substack?
I spent all of 2023 not working, having just received the state pension, which brought a little breathing space from having to work. It was uncomfortable to say the least, but I had been working so hard in the not-for-profit I had funded 8 years previously, that I really needed a rest, and I left that full-time position.
I promised myself I wouldn’t start writing anything until it was really bubbling up from within, and couldn’t help but spill over on the page. It took 10 months! Much longer than I imagined.
I’ve always been one for sharing what’s going on with me, in a way that I hope others will learn from, or be inspired by. So when it dawned on me that I was ageing, it seemed obvious that I could invite others who were also ageing to come on this journey with me. Then the name Embracing Ageing came quickly - I want to embrace it as much as I can, so it’s easier as I get older, and hopefully makes it easier for my readers too.
Is there a topic, question or idea that continually calls you back in your work?
Well, it might not be very popular to read this, but I do keep coming back to the need to discuss the end point in life, commonly called death. I do think it’s really ridiculous that the one thing we know for certain that will happen in this life (ie death) is the one thing that so many turn away from. And actually, when ageing and what it brings is acknowledged, it becomes much less scary, gives curiosity a chance to breathe, and we learn to expand our hearts, minds and souls right up until the last moment.
The wonderful thing about facing the definite fact that we are going to die is that it makes life so much more precious, fantastic, alive, juicy and joyous! Which is often not discovered unless we’ve had a brush with death in one way or the other.
If your writing or creative work could make one meaningful difference in someone’s life, what would you hope that difference would be?
If anything I write or say inspires them to be kinder to themselves during the ageing process, that would be wonderful. If it also included the practical element of planning ahead for a good death, then that would be a bonus! There’s an awful lot that can be done ahead of time to prepare well for the best end possible. And that’s all part of the consciously ageing well process.
A Favorite Photo
I love this pic because I remember laughing at whatever the photographer was saying; plus I am wearing my favourite colours
What is something that brings you joy or peace in your everyday life outside of writing?
I am a natural early riser, and I love to get out of bed and walk in the woods at the end of our road. I hardly ever see anyone else, so it’s just me and the birdsong, the wind riffling the leaves, and the water splashing in the stream. I love it and it totally sets me up for the day.
Has a particular life experience shaped the way you write or create?
Yes. In fact I divide my life so far into 3 sections: Before I met my first husband, while I was with him, and after he died.
His death has been instrumental in so many ways. I had been working as a counsellor and coach for many years, and was writing a blog focused on helping holistic small business owners to be more successful. You can’t live with someone who is going through cancer treatment without that affecting your work, so a lot of what I wrote at that time was about what we were going through and how it was affecting my work.
After he died, I knew I would write about it all at some point. I also knew deep down that I had to wait until the momentum took me. I did write, all the time in my journal, but it wasn’t until about 2 years after he died that I felt moved to pour out the whole story into what became Gifted By Grief: A True Story of Cancer, Loss and Rebirth. The first draft took me about 6 weeks, as it came gushing out and was quite a cathartic process. When it was published, readers were interested most in the questions I had asked my husband before he died. Questions like ‘what are your passwords, what kind of coffin do you want, how do you want your body dressed?’ Fairly hard hitting but important to know the answers to.
So I set up a not-for-profit organization to educate, encourage and enable people to answer these and all the other questions, get the legal stuff in place, and in short, put a good end of life plan in place. I also wrote my fourth book, Before I Go: The Essential Guide to Creating a Good End of Life Plan. I ran that company for eight years, and although I’m not in that role any more, I still work with some people individually to enable them to put a good end of life plan in place, and experience the relief and peace of mind that this brings.
So although by the time I wrote Gifted By Grief, I was already feeling grateful for what had happened as a result of the awful tragedy of my husband dying, I am even more grateful now, because his life AND his death have both contributed majorly to me being an award-winning writer, TedX speaker, and contributor in the ageing arena, where so many people find the subject challenging, and death in particular so hard to talk about.
Not to mention that I met a widower three years after Philip died, and we are now happily married and building a new house together. We refer to our marriage as having four people in it, as without our spouses having died, we would never have met each other.
Featured Article
Click the link below to read:
What’s the purpose of being alive after you’re retired
Thank you so much for reading. Here is how to connect with Jane.
Creator Contact Information
Creator Name: Jane Duncan Rogers
Publication Name: Embracing Ageing
If This Resonates With You
One of the most meaningful ways to support a creator is simply to read their work and stay connected to it.
If something here speaks to you, I encourage you to take a moment to explore Jane’s Substack.
You can also support their work in small but powerful ways:
Subscribe to their publication so you don’t miss new writing
Leave a comment to let them know what resonated
Restack or share a piece you loved
Pass their work along to someone who might need it
These small actions are what help independent writers continue creating and what make spaces like Substack feel alive.
Interested in Being Featured?
Creator Spotlight exists to celebrate writers, artists, and creators whose work brings meaning, reflection, creativity, and connection to the Substack community.
If you’d like to be considered for a future feature, feel free to reach out. I’m always open to discovering new voices and sharing work that deserves to be seen.
You may also enjoy this earlier reflection on lifting voices and supporting one another within the Substack community:
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Thank you for being part of a space where creators support creators and thoughtful work is shared and celebrated. Your presence here means the world to me.
With much love and gratitude,
Lis 💖
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