Lifestyle

When you tell someone you are leaving your career, the standard response is usually a variation of, “Congratulations! Enjoy the relaxation.” But when I told my sister I was retiring, she asked me a much sharper, better question: “What are your plans?” It was a beautiful question because it didn’t assume an ending. It demanded an “and.”

Susan expected the call to last 10 minutes. “I need another pair of eyes,” Michael said. They had worked together years earlier, when Susan still spent her days in conference rooms reviewing marketing campaigns and trying to understand why customers didn’t always behave the way research reports said they would…

We spend decades preparing for retirement, and then somehow we’re expected to know exactly what we’re going to do with it before we’ve experienced a single ordinary day as a retired person. That’s an awfully high standard. Maybe we don’t need to have retirement all figured out. Maybe we just need to begin…

Who’s coming with me and jumping on the pumpkin bandwagon? Talk about moving from summer to fall quickly. September barely rolls in and suddenly everywhere you look it’s pumpkin. Pumpkin lattes. Pumpkin muffins. Pumpkin cereal. Pumpkin bagels. Pumpkin candles. Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin…

The independent living lifestyle can feel unsettling if one is new to it. On the other hand, it can be an exciting new life phase. Whether you are new or are already swimming the deep waters, you do have freedom that is not achievable if you have dependent children…

As I wrote in my August column, autumn is the best time to visit Sicily if you’re looking for ways to stimulate your taste buds. Not only are the temperatures mild, but harvest time arrives in full force, bringing a multitude of flavours.

If you can’t get to Sicily this autumn, the next best thing is to bring Sicily to you! This is one of my favourite autumn dishes, packed with traditional flavours…

As we grow older, we often think about maintaining strength in our legs, heart, and muscles. But there is another kind of strength that deserves attention: the strength of our speaking voice. A strong, clear voice helps us communicate, participate socially, speak up in medical appointments, enjoy conversations, and feel more confident in daily life…

When people start thinking seriously about retiring abroad, the questions tend to come in a fairly predictable order. How much does it cost to live there? Can I get a retirement visa? What is the healthcare like? Can foreigners buy property? How much tax will I pay? They are all perfectly sensible questions. In fact, you would be unwise not to ask them…

There is a word I have been thinking about lately: margin. Years ago, when I was teaching first graders how to write, I remember pointing out the faint margin lines running down both sides of their copybooks. “See these lines?” I would say. “Your writing begins here on the left, and it stops here on the right. You don’t write all the way to the edge.”

It was dinner time, and I had barely anything in my refrigerator. I was hungry but didn’t have a clue what to make. I decided to see if AI could help. I started typing. “I need an easy recipe using cabbage, onions, and a few eggs. And I have some spices.” That was all I typed. AI gave me the most amazing baked cabbage recipe…