GUEST POST by JANE SESKIN For more than forty years I’ve made poems. They’ve seen me through illness, fear, anger and grief-work. They’ve filled me with delight, happiness, joy and laughter. Poetry has been a way to observe and take pictures without a camera. Making poems helps me witness and notate the days. The poems have been comfort [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by LESLIE INMAN and ROXANNE JONES Were you prepared for what retirement was really like? Did you revel in your newfound freedom, or freak out over too much unstructured time? Did you struggle to feel relevant without a job title, or find new purpose by rekindling long-dormant passions? Do you love being retired—or loathe it? [...]
Pat Taub
Book Review: The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image, and Guilt in America by Virginia Sole-Smith GUEST POST BY JANE DOUGALL “For many of us food feels dangerous. We fear it. We regret it. And we categorize everything we eat as good or bad, with the ‘bad’ list always growing longer. No meat, no diary, no gluten—and, [...]
Pat Taub
I have a friend who’s been telling me for years that she’s going to take Italian lessons. Another friend has a long-standing dream to visit Japan. For just as long every time I pass an art supply store I revisit my dream of taking up watercolors. We’re all members of the late-in-life dream club whose engine is stalled. But it doesn’t [...]
Pat Taub
When I mentioned to a friend that I was reading Katy Butler’s new book, The Art of Dying Well, her response was: “That sounds grim.” Another friend was similarly put-off, saying, “I try not to think about death. It’s too depressing.” After finishing Butler’s book I felt anything but depressed. I felt empowered [...]
Pat Taub
Older women are feeling powerful as they discover a voice they didn’t possess in their previous decades. They’re speaking up with a boldness and confidence unknown to their younger selves. Writer and blogger, 80 year-old Elaine Soloway has shed her passive aggressive self to take on verbal bullies. The popular Australian writer, [...]
Pat Taub
Given all the ageism and sexism smacking older women in the face aging can be a dismal state for many women. Mary Pipher to the rescue! In her new book, Women Rowing North, Pipher makes the case for a happy old age. She declares, “Happiness depends on how we deal with what we are given.” Piper interviews older women from all walks of [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by FRANCESCA ARNOLDY Being a grief group co-leader has taught me to respect the invisible weight of grief. I can scan a grief support group of friendly faces, and assume people are okay given their smiles and warm handshakes. And yet, once we get through introductions and take the conversation deeper, these seemingly “okay” [...]
Pat Taub
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 fare to visit family or to enjoy a holiday escape, you may be feeling miserable and lonely, making you a prime candidate for the holiday blues. No one wants to feel left out, but wait a minute, let’s pause [...]
Pat Taub
I recently received an email from a WOW reader, who described herself as “miserable with aging.” She wrote, “I hate getting old. I hate the wrinkles, sleep problems and bouts of loneliness . . . I hate having aged out of the dating scene.” The reader’s complaints carry a universal ring in our ageist and sexist culture, which [...]
Pat Taub