The cartoonist, Lynda Barry, contends that most adults suffer from “play amnesia.” Living in these dark times, many overlook play...
Do You Suffer From Play Amnesia?
The cartoonist, Lynda Barry, contends that most adults suffer from “play amnesia.” Living in these dark times, many overlook play as a valuable resource to diffuse stress and lighten one’s mood. For example, when your news [...]
Pat Taub
Positive Self-Image10
Missing Meaningful Connections?
I feel sad and misunderstood among family and friends who dismiss my deep despair over the genocide in Gaza. Several friends are down in the dumps over their disconnections with adult children, who hold grudges against them, or who simply don’t make time for them. Thousands of Americans are angry over Trump’s cuts to essential living benefits, [...]
Pat Taub
Home Alone
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 don’t fall prey to [...]
Pat Taub
Want Inner Peace: Practice Soul Care
In today’s frantic world, inner peace can feel unattainable, but it’s not all that elusive if you practice soul care. Living soulfully involves developing practices that lead to a life of integrity and deep meaning. When your soul come alive, your world lights up, transporting you to another dimension. You feel one with the universe. [...]
Pat Taub
Growth Through Vulnerability
Being vulnerable is generally defined as speaking and acting in a way that involves a risk where the outcome is unpredictable. For this reason, many take pains to avoid being vulnerable rather than chance receiving disapproval and rejection. This limited perspective overlooks the enormous benefits of being vulnerable. Abigail Thomas, the [...]
Pat Taub
I’ve Closed Up Shop Down There
When she turned 80, Jane Fonda told a Vanity Fair interviewer, “”I’ve closed up shop down there.” She was referring to her decision to forgo sex, elaborating that she had a full, contended single life without sexual relations. Fonda isn’t alone. Many older single women have joined her chorus of living into the sunset without [...]
Pat Taub
Aging Like A Wise Woman
Over coffee, a friend suggested that I write a blog offering guidelines for meaningful aging. This week I’m taking her suggestion to heart. Here’s what I came up with: Honor Your Failures Reframe your “failures” as risks you took where you stuck your neck out. Examine them for the lessons they presented and move on where you promise [...]
Pat Taub
COME TO THE CABARET
GUEST POST by MICHAEL STEINMAN Every day, I encounter deaths and illnesses: people I know and admire. Someone is no longer there. My first response is a horrified helplessness, emotional paralysis. But I cannot live in fear and premature mourning. Because I am not morose by nature, what bloomed in my mind today was whimsical and introspective, [...]
Pat Taub
How Did You Get to Where You Are?
GUEST POST by SHIRLEY DELONG Remember when the only way to figure out how to get to a place you’d never been before was to use a paper map? If you were like me, you’d write down all the road names in order, each left or right turn you had to make, approximate mileage and some landmarks to help you know you were on the right track. Or depending [...]
Pat Taub
“I Hate Being Old!”
Currently I’m teaching the course, “Women and Aging” at Portland, Maine’s senior college. The first day, as we went around the room introducing ourselves, one woman defiantly exclaimed, “I hate being old. I hate my lined face. I hate not being able to move as well as I once did. I hate being too old to date because men my age [...]
Pat Taub
Autumn Is My New Year
While New Year’s Eve is the traditional time for making resolutions, autumn is my new year. Autumn’s entry into the darkness of winter beckons me to soul-search and reset my compass for the coming year. This call is reinforced by having a fall birthday–one I proudly share with Jimmy Carter. This year I decided to do more than [...]
Pat Taub