Inspiration

In the week since I’ve returned from walking the Camino in Portugal and Spain, my social media has been packed with advice about walking the Camino. What to pack, what to wear, which shoes are best, which backpack I need, whether to use poles and an endless assortment of other things I apparently can’t live without…

I’ve just come back from seven days in Cyprus for my sister’s 40th birthday. It was a really joyous occasion and the first time in a long time that I’ve had some proper downtime. Leading up to the trip, it was all systems go, with last-minute preparations for the birthday girl, as well as making sure everything was tied up with work…

I’ve spent a good portion of my life around music and musicians, and one thing I’ve learned is that you don’t have to like somebody to make beautiful music with them. I’ve played with musicians I genuinely enjoyed being around, and others whose company I could have done without. But something remarkable happens when somebody counts off a song…

When morning slips in with its bright little light, Don’t drag yesterday’s worries out of the night. Say, “Here is a day I have never yet known. I’ll see what can blossom from seeds I have sown.” The past may come knocking with, “Why did you choose That word or that path? Think of all you could lose!”

In my last article in this series, I shared something I’ve come to believe deeply: the world doesn’t need younger versions of us. It needs our wisdom. Yet when I talk with women our age about sharing what they know, I often hear the same quiet doubt, in one form or another. “Who would want to hear what…

When I was growing up, I don’t remember anybody sitting me down and giving me profound advice about how to live my life. I’ve joked over the years that about the only thing my father ever taught me was how to catch a ball. He was a sportsman. He played professional football and semi-pro basketball…

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…

A new habit is usually planned for a best week. An hour of walking, a chapter a day, a tidy routine in a clean notebook. It holds for a few days. Then a bad week arrives. Someone gets sick, an appointment is moved, the weather turns, and the whole thing folds. The notebook goes into a drawer, and the conclusion is that discipline was the problem…

We all have dreams and bucket lists that we would like to accomplish in our lifetime. Seeing that most of us are past 60, we have likely completed many of them…

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…