Many boomer women are in transition. They are leaving behind full time jobs, family responsibilities, and roles that defined them in the past. They are changing the way that they relate to the world. Read More

Midlife women are doing it again. As we did in our 20s, we are questioning fundamentals, challenging the status quo, being stubbornly bohemian and embracing the unconventional. Boomers are tenaciously breaking down stereotypes about aging and redefining life after 60. However, this raises an important question. Read More

“State of Wonder” was recommended to me by so many women in the Sixty and Me community that I decided it was time to add it to my reading list. Now that I have had a chance to see for myself, I can say that the praise for author Ann Patchett is totally justified.

The story is about Dr. Marina Singh, a pharmaceutical researcher. She travels into the Amazon jungle to collect the remains and effects of a colleague who had recently died. On the way, she wants to connect with a renowned gynaecologist who has studied the reproductive habits of an Amazon tribe, in which the women can have children well into middle age. Read More

Several years ago, while I was going through a major downsizing exercise, I came across a vision board that my son had created in 5^th grade. Of course, he had no idea what a vision board was at the time, but, it was clear that this was the result of his creative effort. His visual collage was both beautiful and eerily prescient. Read More

Does the meaning of life change after 60? That’s the question I found myself asking, recently, as I sat in a small cafe, writing and preparing for the week to come. As I wrote, teenagers walked past the window, arms filled with shopping bags. Moms navigated the busy street with toddlers and buggies. Women in their 30s and 40s hustled past on their way to work. Some people looked organized and purposeful. Others looked frantic and vaguely confused. But, regardless, they all seemed to be going somewhere. Whether they knew it or not, their lives had a purpose — perhaps a purpose defined by their life stage — but, a purpose all the same. With so many options available, life after 60 feels entirely different. So, the question struck me.
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“Brain Rules” is a fascinating book, which looks at the brain and explains how little we actually know about it. Dr. John Medina, who I interviewed in 2013, is a neuroscientist at the University of Washington. He offers great insights and shares his passion for the brain with a wonderful sense of humour. One of the things that I love most about Dr. Medina’s approach Read More

The feminist movement gave women many gifts. Whatever your opinion about “women’s lib,” most efforts to achieve equality and independence have been helpful. Women can vote, own property and enjoy a wide range of legal and financial freedoms. Women truly have come out of the shadows and chosen to take off their invisibility cloaks. Read More

“Chestnut Street” is a collection of thirty six short stories by Maeve Binchy, a much loved writer who passed away in 2012. Her husband, Gordon Snell, recently decided that the time was right to share these stories that his wife had written over many years. I am glad he made that decision.

These are wonderful stories, set on Chestnut Street, a fictional place in Dublin, Ireland. Each story is told from the point of view of a different resident. They include stories told by adults, teenagers, and children. Read More

“A Year by the Sea” is a book about a woman’s gift to herself. It is a story of transformation. On one level it is about a woman taking time to “find herself.” On another, it has an edge of gutsy courage that makes it stand out. Read More

When I was 12 years old, I spent a lot of time imagining how my life would unfold. I created a wonderful plan, complete with well-defined dots, connected by entirely straight lines. I soon realized that the map I drew in my mind was sketched in pencil, not in ink. Read More