Getting Older

Do you ever ask yourself why we get older? Why do we continue to live for decades after our “productive” years end?

As our bodies lose their physical strength and mental sharpness, why do we continue? These are fascinating questions and, as we will discover, they get at the essence of what it means to find meaning in life after 60. Read More

An old friend of mine from over a decade asked me to dance the other night. I have danced Argentine tango for over 20 years. However, each time a beautiful and elegant dancer asks me to dance, I am honored and full of anticipation and joy. I also wanted those next four tangos to be danced perfectly. Read More

I remember watching In Time, a movie with Justin Timberlake, a few years ago and pondering a world where everyone looks 18. In the film, Justin’s character, Will Salas, lives in a society in which the rich have reversed the aging process and can, effectively, live forever.

In Time is mostly about class struggle, but, it was the social implications of reversing aging that I found fascinating. Read More

How would you describe being 60 years old in 2 words? That was the deceptively simple question that I recently asked the women in our Sixty and Me community. Why “deceptively simple?” Because, shorter definitions are often the hardest to give. As Mark Twain once said, “I would have written a shorter letter but I didn’t have the time.” Read More

Why is it that so many women, once they reach a certain age (usually taken to be about fifty), allow themselves to sink into grannydom; yet again, living within the expectations of others. Those expectations include putting on weight, doing strange things to their hair, dressing old, baking, disappearing, baby sitting, knitting… knitting?!?!

So, I’m busy deleting all those Facebook sidebar adverts for funeral plans, lawyers who will arrange Power of Attorney and annuity providers when it suddenly hits me: who the cotton-picking heck do these people think I am? Closely followed by: who do I think I am? Read More

What does “home” mean to you? I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. For the past year, it’s been a theme that I’ve explored in my writing. The protagonist struggles with this question in my latest novel. Then, as the migrant crisis overseas intensified, I was caught up in thinking about how those countless numbers of people had everything in their lives decimated. I imagined, with a heavy heart, the definition of “home,” for them, will be complex and painful…

I smiled when I read the following quote by David Bowie: “Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been.”

I’ve been mindful of this mantra every day of my life since the age of 50. Read More

Who was it that said they wished they could get to the top of the stairs before they forgot why they wanted to go up there the first place? No, I don’t remember either, but the first three words of that sentence are kind of becoming the leitmotif for my life. Read More

Let’s face it. After the “Over the Hill” birthday cards, banners and party favors begin at age 50, the onslaught of terms used to describe the universal process of getting older – well, really suck. Read More