Finding Happiness

I recently finished reading The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. It is an unusual novel because the story unfolds through letters, emails and other correspondence. While reading it, I began wondering whether I was still carrying regrets or punishing myself for decisions I made years, perhaps even decades, ago…

Somewhere around 60, a strange thing happens: the world stops asking what you’re going to be when you grow up, and quietly assumes you’ve already decided. Nobody checks in anymore. Nobody hands you a manual for this stretch the way they handed you baby books and parenting blogs for the first one…

Have you ever spent a night in fitful sleep, had disturbing dreams or just awakened at 3 am with a mind so active you had to take a sleeping pill? Or are those just redundant questions? As I’ve gotten older, now in my mid 70s, I’ve noticed that it’s darn…

Old Grumble McMutter met Miss Fussy McFrown, Who polished each pebble and straightened each town. He huffed at her humming. She frowned at his shoes. They argued on Tuesdays… and most Wednesdays, too…

Many women in their 60s have experienced decades of caregiving, responsibility, and emotional labor. Some are still care-giving for parents or grandchildren, even after their own children have left the nest. A good portion decide to trade full-time employment for a less demanding schedule or even choose to take the plunge directly into full-time retirement…

The other morning, as I sat down to breakfast – a fresh cup of coffee, an almond cranberry scone topped with yogurt and homemade peach preserves – I realized that this simple pleasure had not happened by accident. The word that came to mind was discipline. I hadn’t particularly wanted to bake scones the evening before, nor had I been eager…

When I was a younger man, I thought I had the rest of my life planned. I wanted to write songs, travel, buy a motorhome, and eventually settle somewhere on the beach in Todos Santos, Baja California. After decades of working, I believed I had earned the chance to slow down and enjoy life at my own pace. Life had other plans…

There once was a clan of the Flibberty Flocks, Who polished their smiles and synchronized clocks. They ironed their curtains, they color-matched stew, And claimed that perfection was simply “what’s due.”

I was sitting in a circle of people I barely knew when it happened. A laugh. Not a polite one. A deep, from-the-belly laugh that felt like it came from somewhere I had forgotten. I didn’t realize how long it had been until it came back. I wasn’t looking for it. Joy just showed up. Here are five ways I’ve learned to practice it…

I’m not sure if it was turning 70, surviving cancer or simply having lived enough life to understand that there is nothing worth sacrificing your peace and well-being over. Through the years, I have done what most people (especially women) have done. I’ve taken care of everyone else, until there was nothing left for me…