About Marcia Smalley

I recently heard it called The Honeymoon Phase. If you’ve chosen to work less or have left your work life behind altogether, you might recognize it.

‘It’ is that first stage of retirement that can last a few months or a few years. Read More

I remember being disappointed when I turned 50. I felt like Oprah had let me down. I wasn’t coming into my own body the way all the magazines said I would, the way I was ‘supposed’ to. Read More

Life never runs out of things to teach us. Some days it feels like I could fill a library with all my lessons. And I haven’t always gracefully accepted all this learning. I resisted a lot of it. Read More

Joy was in short supply. I’d received a lot of bad news from several people in my life. It was a litany of loss. And never mind the world news in general, which is almost always hard to hear. I longed for more good cheer, for myself and for my loved ones. Read More

Your financial ducks are in a row. You’re staying on top of your health. You’ve lined up your leisure activities and added notable dates to your calendar.

Still, after doing all that, you feel like there’s more to consider. Reinvention takes some work. Read More

Our life choices either deplete us or nourish us. They affect us physically, emotionally and spiritually, usually all at the same time. Read More

I don’t consider myself ‘retired,’ but I do include myself among those who are retooling their lives now that a full-time job is a thing of the past. I’ve written previously for Sixty and Me about living a happy retired life, one without career demands. Read More

Every life transition has both peaks and valleys. We become excited about new possibilities, yet we can’t avoid the shadows. Transitioning into retirement isn’t any different. It’s a glorious and fun-filled time of life. And it has a darker side. Read More

I never used to think of myself as creative. Artists are creative, and artists paint. I can’t even draw. Read More

A lot is being written these days about the joy we’re finding at 60 and in the decades beyond. But is this counter-intuitive? After all, our lifetime is winding down, we’re facing a lot of endings, and our next chapters are undeniably shorter than our first. Read More