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
Guest Post by Emily Capelle I always heard that as you get older you lose your filter and start saying whatever comes to mind. Or behave in ways you wouldn’t have in the past. Well now that I’m 58, I have noticed it more and more. Growing up in an “in-between” time like the sixties and seventies, I suspect many young girls, like [...]
Pat Taub
A Little Help from My Friends After blogging this week about my struggle to accommodate to my aging body’s inevitable decline with a focus on my newly visited sciatica, I received numerous helpful suggestions on the post’s comment section and on the WOW Facebook page. There was lots of supportive advice from others describing how they’ve [...]
Pat Taub
In these dark times slow reading or embracing books with paper pages can be a source of resistance and a place of refuge. I breathe easier when I turn away from the Internet to read real books in real time. Summer reading makes it possible to revisit a time when reading was leisurely. My picks of summer books runs the gamut from thrillers [...]
Pat Taub
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
GUEST POST BY TONI KIEF For this post Toni collected grandmother wisdom from friends that are grandmothers. They are among the pairs photographed below. Dearest Granddaughters, Because of you, we joined the community of Grandmothers. We would like to assure you that it’s all worthwhile. Watching you careen into adulthood pressing forward, [...]
Pat Taub
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
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
Poor Gaza! The past few weeks have seen 111 unarmed Gazan protestors shot by Israeli forces as they gathered at the Israeli border to mark Nakba, the day 70 years ago when Israel forced Gazans to leave their homeland. Ever since they have been living under tight Israeli military rule in what many call the “world’s largest open-air prison.” [...]
Pat Taub
Cecile Richards died on Monday, January 20, 2025. She was the courageous President of Planned Parenthood from 2006-2018, when the organization was under sharp attack by conservatives. She helped fend off attacks to cut its funding or to restrict access to abortions. In her memory, I’m reposting my WOW post about her from May, 2018 [...]
Pat Taub