If you live alone, if your family is scattered far and wide, if you recently lost a partner or spouse, if you can’t afford the plane...
Spiritual Practices
What Will You Do With the Rest of Your Life?
This question has been staring me in the face as my seventies flash by. When I was young it felt like I had all the time in the world to plot my future. Now my future has shrunk. I go to more funerals than weddings. I catch my children whispering behind my back, comparing notes on how I’ve slowed down. Fundamentally I have two choices: [...]
Pat Taub
The Language of Kindness
The Language of Kindness by Christie Watson is one of those rare books that make your heart come alive. After I finished it, I felt a surging love for close friends and family, even a deeper connection to strangers I passed on the street. Watson’s book is an account of her 20 years as a nurse in London hospitals. As a student nurse Watson [...]
Pat Taub
New Year’s Resolutions for Soulful Living
Many of us toasted 2018 with resolutions for improving our everyday lives, focusing on losing weight, eating healthier, and strengthening our close relationships. But what if we departed from the standard pledges and instead made New Year’s resolutions that cater to the soul? Think about it, if we all made just one soulful promise and kept [...]
Pat Taub
Mary Oliver: Poetry For the Soul
When my brother started dating a few years after his wife passed, he was surprised that Mary Oliver’s name readily surfaced in conversations with his dates. Baffled he asked me: “Why is Mary Oliver so popular with women?” I explained: “She speaks to our soul. Her words go to the heart of our lives.” Mary Oliver, now 82-years-old [...]
Pat Taub
Positive in My 70’s
As another birthday approaches I have basically two choices: to agonize over my advancing age OR to look at the glass as half full and take stock of what is positive about being in my seventies. While there are unwelcome aspects to aging, like diminished energy and physical agility, sleep problems and occasionally missing a companion, I refuse [...]
Pat Taub
Discovering Joy
Sometimes a book comes into your life at exactly the right moment, offering a path forward that was formerly invisible to you. This was my experience with The Book of Joy, a week-long conversation between the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, aptly facilitated by Douglas Abrams, the book’s editor. When a friend recommended The [...]
Pat Taub
How Did Aging Become So Complicated?
Both of my grandmothers lived well into their 80’s, making an easy transition into old age. Neither one took mega doses of vitamins or exercised to stave off the Grim Reaper. Nor were they bombarded with advice on how to slow the aging process. They each continued to dress up almost every day. My paternal grandmother was rarely without [...]
Pat Taub
Spring-Cleaning for the Soul
Spring is typically the time when we tidy up our living spaces, but what if we applied this same thinking to our interior lives? What if we engaged in spring-cleaning for the soul? What would that look like? It might involve reworking the formula in Marie Kondo’s bestseller, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, where you think soulfully [...]
Pat Taub