As I listened to Becky Ann Baker’s wonderful narration of Laurie Frankel’s book Enormous Wings, I couldn’t help but think, What would I do in this situation? The protagonist, Pepper Mills, is 77, newly and unwillingly relocated to the Vista View Retirement Community in Austin, Texas. Her grown children strongly suggest (insist)…

I devoured Sebastian Fitzek’s Therapy over the course of a single foggy, drizzly weekend, and in hindsight, the weather couldn’t have set a more fitting mood. I picked it up for a fairly simple reason: this year marks 20 years since Fitzek’s German original novel was first published, and the anniversary arrived with a new audiobook edition…

There’s a particular kind of freedom that arrives, if you’re lucky, in the last chapters of a life. Not the freedom of open roads and infinite possibility – that’s a young person’s freedom, showy and exhausting. This is quieter: the freedom of no longer caring what people think, because you’ve run out of time to perform for them…

I grew up in the 1960s and 70s. And Dick Van Dyke was a mainstay on our TV. He was one of my favorite actors. I loved his TV show with Mary Tyler Moore. And of course, he was wonderful as the sweet chimney sweep in Mary Poppins…

Arthur C. Brooks’ From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life is a compelling guide for navigating the challenges and transitions of life as we age. Drawing upon a rich tapestry of personal stories, psychological insights…

Many of us expect to decline as we age: walking more slowly, memory starting to fade, energy dwindling. But then there are the SuperAgers: people in their 80s, 90s and even Centenarians who are as sharp, vibrant, and engaged as folks decades younger. They remind us that aging…

I’ve always been interested in brain health, especially after reading more about neuroplasticity. But I never worried about my brain much. It was just there – ready, reliable, always on call. But as I got older, I noticed little shifts: forgetting why I walked into a room, forgetting names…

In a world that prizes speed, productivity, and constant connection, the idea of pausing can feel counterintuitive, even ‘bad’ – not just bad behavior, but that I’m a bad person. And as I age, I fear that if I pause, I might just stop all together. But I keep reading that pausing…

When I was 16 years old, my mother died of alcoholism. I didn’t know what to do, I was lost and afraid and life felt impossible. So, what did I do? I drank a lot to feel nothing, to numb out. And I also started journaling, every day. I wasn’t sure why, it just felt like something…

As I mentioned in a previous article, I would like to take a deeper dive into the damaging myth that drinking alcohol and/or taking drugs enhances one’s creativity. Before I gave up drugs and alcohol, I thought the only way I could be creative in any way was to be high on some substance…