It’s been just one week since Trump won the Presidential election, catapulting many into despair, terrified of his campaign pledges...
Positive Self-Image10
My Time is Running Out!
As I move through my 70’s I’m forced to face the fact that I’m running out of time. It feels scary. I’m healthy and financially secure, but no one lives forever. How much time do I have left: 15 years, 20 years? The last 15 years raced by. If the next 15 years are going to be equally accelerated, how can I make the most of them? How [...]
Pat Taub
Garden Angels, Granddaughter Jane & A Handmaid’s Tale Finale
Flowers in Memory of My Mother I belong to a progressive church in downtown Portland, which mercifully accepts my spiritual confusion. Last Sunday, in memory of my mother, I donated the altar flowers, purchased at the farmer’s market. They were exactly the kind of natural bouquet Jane would have loved. Garden Angels Update A few weeks ago [...]
Pat Taub
Celebrating the WOW Facebook Community
Today marks my 100th posting since launching WOW in August 2015. WOW came about when, looking for resources for my course “Women and Aging,” I goggled “blogs for older women.” To my dismay the vast majority consisted of advice on how to dress younger, lure a man, up your sex drive, cosmetic surgery and the like. In other words, how [...]
Pat Taub
I Can Play Too? …if only I knew how
by Gwen McCauley, guest blogger It was 1995. I was 47. I had recently received the biggest promotion of my life through hard work, dedication and a strategic mind. And I discovered in a moment of devastating insight that I was unable to play. What the hell was wrong with me? My executive team had one of those team-building events so popular [...]
Pat Taub
Expanding Mother’s Day to Include Our Spiritual Mothers
I propose that we expand Mother’s Day so that we honor not just our biological mothers but also our spiritual mothers. Our spiritual mothers are the teachers, neighbors, aunts, family friends and others whose influence made an indelible impression on us. Frequently these women didn’t have their own children but lovingly nurtured and guided [...]
Pat Taub
Spring-Cleaning for the Soul
Spring is typically the time when we tidy up our living spaces, but what if we applied this same thinking to our interior lives? What if we engaged in spring-cleaning for the soul? What would that look like? It might involve reworking the formula in Marie Kondo’s bestseller, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, where you think soulfully [...]
Pat Taub
Why A Blog for Older Women?
WOW is now 18 months old, but I’m still asked: “Do we really need another blog? Let alone one for older women.” If the world is rushing off the cliff, shouldn’t older women try to enjoy their golden years and not get distracted by the Trump White House? The very fact that Trumpism is taking over speaks to the need for the voices of [...]
Pat Taub
“Mary Page Marlowe”: Making Peace With Our Past Selves
This past weekend I visited family in Chicago, home of the famed Steppenwolf Theater, which has birthed numerous Broadway plays. My daughter-in-law treated me to a Steppenwolf matinee to see the trial opening of Tracey Letts’ new play, Mary Page Marlowe. It depicts the major events in an older women’s life: collegiate dreams to visit [...]
Pat Taub
Diana Athill: Possibly the Coolest Old Woman on the Planet!
If you need inspiration and reassurance that old age can be a dynamic time and not a passage to be feared, then grab Diana Athill’s two memoirs. The first, Somewhere Towards the End, was written when she was 89. Her most recent memoir, Alive, Alive Oh! was published last year when Athill was 98! Athill is a wonderful example of how one can [...]
Pat Taub
The Birds are for Getting Old?
Guest post by Ann Tracy When is it that one finally realizes that maybe they are indeed “old”? Do we have individual epiphanies or do we barely notice when we prefer leggings or pants over tights or pantyhose and skirts. Or is that just me? Now at the age of 64, I’m finally able to not care about looking “sexy” [...]
Pat Taub