I had the best intentions. In 2022, I was writing articles for Sixty and Me and enjoying interactions with new people I’d met through this platform. I was just finding my stride when my husband had a medical emergency. He needed brain surgery as soon as possible. We’d been married more than 40 years at the time, and I went into automatic mode…

If you’ve tried advice that should have helped and it just didn’t land, the problem might not be the advice. It might not be you, either. It might be that the advice was written for a different chapter than the one you’re actually in. Most of us have been there. You read the article, buy the book, or sit through the talk, and everyone around you seems to nod along while you quietly think…

When you pass by a mirror, pause there for a beat. Say, “Hello, lovely human!” to the face that you meet. It may feel quite silly. You’ll laugh at the view. But this life is unfolding and happ’ning to you…

I am a full-time caregiver for my husband with Parkinson’s. Some days and weeks are relatively easy. Other times it’s being up every couple of hours during the night and constantly on call during the day. When the 24/7 periods hit, I become a different person. Tired, grumpy, listless, discouraged, etc. That is when my self-alert system says it’s time to switch gears…

Each October, I am reminded of my two bouts with breast cancer. My first bout was 25 years ago, just months after the World Trade Center towers fell to the ground. My second bout was only two years ago, at the age of 70. So in 25 years, I’ve had two breast cancers and two mastectomies and reconstructions…

My wife and I have been traveling extensively this year. I mean home two weeks, gone two kind of thing. People wonder how we do it and why but there’s always a tinge of jealousy or entitlement in the phrasing. (Read between the lines – aren’t you leaving anything for the kids?) In short, our reply is that our kids are doing fine…

I’ve met women who have relocated to other countries and didn’t even know the language. Women who have written books and started businesses. Women who have found love. One of the women in my community adopted two infants and a toddler…

I just finished the book Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid for my book club. Although it is fiction, I found it insightful in many ways. What struck home for me was the “burden” the women astronauts felt in being the first women in the space program. Not only were they expected to be exceptional in their respective field of expertise…

To give and receive love is a natural, universal desire, and so too is sexual pleasure. Why, then, do most people feel awkward with self-love and uncomfortable embracing their sexuality after 60? How can we look to ourselves for love and sexual pleasure that suits our unique desires, without giving our power away to other people?

There is a quiet assumption in our culture that life follows a predictable timetable. We are expected to learn when we are young, build a career in middle age, retire around 65, and then gradually withdraw from the world of ambition and accomplishment. I do not believe that timetable serves us well…