WOW: Women's Older Wisdom


Aging Thoughtfully10

The Stories We Tell Ourselves

We all have core stories we tell ourselves that keep us trapped in a negative narrative:  “I can’t seem to speak up when my feelings are hurt; I have a hard time believing I’m good enough; I’m too old to be in a relationship.” Esther Perel, the popular relationship therapist, believes that the stories we tell ourselves are adaptive [...]

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Coming Home to Yourself

Coming home to yourself means using your voice to express what matters to you, being authentic and not  suppressing your feelings. In “The Myth of Normal,” noted Canadian psychiatrist, Gabor Mate, contends that nice women, who sacrifice their own needs caring for others, frequently develop autoimmune diseases.  In other words, your health [...]

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No More (Empty) Earth Days

GUEST POST by JANET WEIL “Who should decide how best to use the resources of the earth? What are the most effective ways to build a more sustainable future?” – Adam Rome, “The Genius of Earth Day” Three years ago, early in the global COVID pandemic, on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, I wrote a guest blog post, a remembrance of [...]

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How I Became A Climate Activist

GUEST POST by MOLLY SCHEN I’m coming to climate activism pretty late in life, in my early sixties. I’m no Greta Thunberg. But I can’t stay on the sidelines any longer. I am dismayed by the frequency of severe weather events—floods, fires, droughts, and storms. And I cannot ignore my own lived experience of hotter summers, milder winters, [...]

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Astrology as a Tool for Self-Understanding

GUEST POST By LAURIE FARRINGTON My fascination with astrology began the first time I saw the symbols on those little horoscope booklets by the grocery store check-out counters in the early 1960s. Following many years of self-study, I began my formal practice of astrology in 1994. As a professional consulting astrologer, I use the tool of astrology [...]

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The Night of the Bras

GUEST POST by BARBARA MUDD It was full darkness outside.  The spring air was perfect.  I was lying  face down on the edge of a dock with eight other middle-aged and senior-aged women doing the same thing.   We were hanging over the dock with water below us. At the exact same time, we all put our hands into the cold water and began swirling [...]

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How I Learned to Embrace Poetry

Because of the way I was introduced to poetry, it took me awhile to develop an appreciation for poetry. In middle school I was forced to memorize classic poems like Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” I remember standing in front of my 8th grade class, woodenly reciting the poem, then sitting down and that was that. Frost’s poem wasn’t [...]

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I Cane, I Saw, I Conquered

GUEST POST by MICHAEL STEINMAN I’ve never been a sprinter.  And in the past decade, some friends have commented on my odd forward motion.  “You walk funny.  Are you OK?”  You could say I limp, or perhaps hobble.  A woman I was dating told me that she was “concerned” about “my mobility issues,” to which [...]

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Everyday Rituals

GUEST POST by JACOB WATSON While the events of our everyday lives are often repetitious, to see them as rituals brings the energy of the sacred to daily life. Years ago, walking in an urban park I sat on a bench to rest. I watched a fly buzz around my head and then disappear into the bushes. Suddenly, sitting down to rest was completely unique. [...]

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Debunking “Successful Aging”

I rankle whenever I hear the term, “successful aging,” which has become the Boomers’ mantra.  I take issue because it implies there is a right and wrong way to age.  Successful aging is defined in terms of a self-centered wellness regime as opposed to a compassionate focus on the elder’s wisdom years, where giving back to society [...]

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