It’s been just one week since Trump won the Presidential election, catapulting many into despair, terrified of his campaign pledges...
Aging Thoughtfully10
How I Learned to Stop Hiding My Money Under the Mattress
Guest Post by Joan Smith Many single women in the over-seventy crowd admit to the spectre of the bag lady looming in the background. She embodies our fear of not having enough to live on, just when our ability to earn is diminishing. You know those articles about planning for our retirement? Many of us don’t have enough extra to warrant [...]
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
Bemoaning My Physical Decline
I’ve more or less accepted the changes aging brings to my appearance: wrinkles, a sagging jaw line, droopy breasts and a puffy tummy. The physical limitations are another story. I am frequently at war with the arthritis in my left knee and right shoulder. I curse my body when my long walks have to be curtailed because my knee swells [...]
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
My Father: The Good-Hearted Tyrant
Like most women I’ve spent endless hours analyzing my relationship with my mother, while giving only a passing nod to my relationship with father. With Father’s Day approaching it seems fitting to reflect on my father’s influence. I grew up in the 1950’s when gender roles were strictly defined. My mother, like most women of the era, [...]
Pat Taub
My Jane Fonda Problem
GUEST POST BY JANET WEIL “Wow… what a body – she’s incredibly well-proportioned!” The thought bubble over my head filled in as, a few months ago, my husband and I watched on Netflix a rather dull film (California Suite) with only 2 characters. Relaxed West Coast ex-husband, played by Alan Alda, hosts tense [...]
Pat Taub
Healing the Mother Wound
Mother’s Day can be an unsettling occasion for those adult daughters with a pronounced mother wound. A celebration of mothers can reawaken a daughter’s memories of the maternal hurt she experienced growing up and which continues to affect her primary relationships. The mother wound can be traced to a woman’s proclivity to rejection, [...]
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