Initially my plan in interviewing Penny Rosenwasser, a founding board member of Jewish Voice for Peace, was to highlight the work...
Aging Thoughtfully
How Learning to Play the Ukulele Helped Cure My ‘Nameless Depression”
Guest Post by Martha Rice You wake up one morning, and it’s back. You don’t know why. Things have been going along pretty smoothly. But on this morning, you wake up and for no apparent reason, you don’t have the spirit to get out of bed. You are suffering from a condition that I call “nameless depression,” a debilitating feeling [...]
Pat Taub
Breaking Free from Expectations
Guest Post by Emily Capelle I always heard that as you get older you lose your filter and start saying whatever comes to mind. Or behave in ways you wouldn’t have in the past. Well now that I’m 58, I have noticed it more and more. Growing up in an “in-between” time like the sixties and seventies, I suspect many young girls, like [...]
Pat Taub
Creating A Vision For The Third Chapter
Guest Post by Stephanie Raffelock We arrive at the doorstep of older age without a plan. Often retirement isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. We often find our sense of self, tangled up with what “we used to do” instead of “who we are now.” THE PURPOSEFUL LIFE Life comes down to this at any age: we are [...]
Pat Taub
When Loss Brings Up More Than I Bargained For
This past weekend I attended the memorial service for Connie Chandler Ward, one of the founders of Greenfire, a women’s spiritual retreat center in Tenants Harbor, Maine. Connie, a former Wellesley chaplain had been a spiritual mentor to me and many others. As I rushed out the door I stuffed a packet of travel-sized Kleenex in my purse, [...]
Pat Taub
Is the Wellness Industry Stressing-Out Older Americans?
It seems like a paradox to accuse the wellness industry of adding stress to the lives of older Americans, yet this is a central thesis in Barbara Ehrenreich’s new book, Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, The Uncertainty of Dying and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer. Ehrenreich maintains that many older Americans are stressed-out [...]
Pat Taub
Growing Old Without a Partner
I’m all for love and romance but when our love options run out as we age, when dating is more frustrating than satisfying, wouldn’t we be happier if we accepted that love is no longer in the cards, seeking companionship among friends and family? I mentioned this to a friend who looked aghast as if I were delivering a death sentence! [...]
Pat Taub
“Happiness is a Choice You Make:” A Book Review
In his best-selling book, “Happiness is a Choice You Make,” the author, John Leland makes the intriguing claim, “If you want to be happy, think like an old person.” Curious about Leland’s thesis, I scooped up his book, eager for tips on being happy in my advanced years and wanting to escape the lot of the old people in my family [...]
Pat Taub
Valentines for the Women in My Heart
What better time than Valentine’s Day to pay homage to some of the remarkable women who helped shaped me? My mother, Jane Conrad, provided me with a love for art, escorting me to my first art museum (Washington, DC’s National Gallery of Art) at age 9. I was awed by the marble columns and huge masterpieces in elaborate gold frames. Mother [...]
Pat Taub
Honoring WOW Guest Bloggers of 2017
As horrific as 2017 was, it offered a silver lining: successful women-led movements from the year’s opening DC Women’s March to the year’s end #metoo campaign bolster hope for 2018. A new emboldened sisterhood is emerging. Older women are part of this sisterhood, raising their voices to rail against ageism and sexism and to claim their [...]
Pat Taub
I Hate Asking for Help!
Guest Post by Walker Thornton I hate asking for help. There is no one specific reason—a mix of not wanting to seem weak or vulnerable, and fearing I’ll be turned down. I was raised in the South, by a very traditional mother who wanted a pretty, sweet daughter. I was taught boys didn’t like girls who were assertive or too talkative. I [...]
Pat Taub