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...
Aging Thoughtfully10
Home Alone at 70-Something
GUEST POST by TESSA CALVERT-LINNELL Close the front door behind me, then turn on the lights and put the shopping away. Nothing will move in this house – not a chair or a spoon – unless at the touch of my hand. Nothing breathes but me – except for a few plants in pots and the occasional spider, because I’m one of millions of [...]
Pat Taub
Aging With Eyes Wide Open
There seem to be three basic ways most of us adapt to aging: with our eyes shut, with our eyes half open, or with our eyes wide open. The first group consists of those in denial about aging, like women who protest, “Don’t ever call me old!” The second group is where most of us fall; some days we acknowledge our aging and plan for [...]
Pat Taub
Julian Assange, Signs of Spring, Living with Cancer & More!
Julian Assange My heart is heavy with the imprisonment of Julian Assange and what it portends for freedom of the press. If Assange is extradited to the US he will no doubt be tortured and placed in solitary confinement, which is just another form of torture, sending the message to reporters everywhere that their sources will be compromised. Whistle [...]
Pat Taub
Older, Wiser, Shorter… and Still Writing Poetry
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
Retired Women: An Invitation to Be Heard and Help Others Through the Transition
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
Is Your Relationship to Food Driving You Crazy?
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
Dusting Off Your Dreams
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
Lessons On How to Die
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
The Older Woman’s New Power
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
How To Be A Happy Older Woman
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