While I’m an elder, I hadn’t given a lot of thought to dying, that is until my brother, who’s 20 months younger, announced in...
Positive Self-Image10
Taking on the Anti-Aging Movement
In a society that worships youth, my wrinkles, white hair, sagging breasts and flabby upper arms render me unacceptable. The anti-aging industry to the rescue! If I go in for plastic surgery, facial fillers, hair dye, beauty creams and medical supplements, I can defy nature, while stuffing the pockets of the anti-aging fat cats, on target [...]
Pat Taub
What We Like About Getting Older
Research has found that older women are discovering that age has unanticipated rewards. Setting aside the usual physical symptoms like arthritis, decreased flexibility and stamina, the older woman sparkles in new ways. She frequently finds herself more content and more confident, while still full of dreams. Eager to capture individual [...]
Pat Taub
Mary Oliver: Poetry That Heals
I feel like I’m living inside the song, “Stop the World I Want to Get Off,” as I reel from our climate crisis, Afghanistan’s unraveling and a new Covid surge. Mary Oliver to the rescue! I pull one of her poetry books from my shelf, find a quiet place to stretch out and start to read. Oliver’s poems are balm for my soul. They settle [...]
Pat Taub
“I Hate Getting Old”
I recently received an email from a WOW reader, who confessed to being angry about aging: “I hate getting old. I hate the wrinkles, sleep problems and bouts of loneliness . . . I hate having aged out of the dating scene.” The reader’s complaints carry a universal ring in our ageist and sexist culture, which presents a formidable [...]
Pat Taub
Celebrating Feisty Old Broads
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day. These immortal words of Dylan Thomas are a suitable motto for Feisty Old Broads, older women who reject the stereotype of the accommodating old lady. The FOB’s are women who are fearless in their individuality. They speak truth to power, laugh a lot, have [...]
Pat Taub
Practicing Forgiveness Is a Game Changer
Forgiveness is especially meaningful late in life. This is the time to wipe the slate clean, to do away with emotional baggage that prevents us from living in the moment. To quote Ram Dass: “The role of elders is to move away from ego into soul.” What could be better for the soul than to practice forgiveness? You might ask: “How [...]
Pat Taub
Hair Stories
Recently we’ve been seeing lots of stories on older women going gray or white during Covid. Deciding it would be interesting to unpack these stories, I posted on the WOW Facebook page, asking women how they feel about their hair post Covid. I am pleased to report that the majority in my sample has made peace with their hair. Many felt [...]
Pat Taub
How Mentorship Helped Me Find My Way in My Seventies
GUEST POST by PAMELA VALOIS I met Jacomena Maybeck when I was thirty-seven and she was in her late seventies. She was tarring her roof, dressed in a halter top and shorts. I’d never met anyone like her. Our long friendship would help prepare me for my own winter years that I now find myself in, at age seventy-seven. In her memoir, Jacomena [...]
Pat Taub
Being 76
GUEST POST by EILEEN GRIFFIN I did not welcome my seventieth decade. With the arrival of my 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and even the 60s, I crossed each threshold with relief or anticipation or calm acceptance, but always ready. Not so with the 70s. On my 70th birthday, I wanted to open the door and holler “Go away, scat, you have the wrong house.” [...]
Pat Taub
New Beginnings: Life Post-Lockdown
Spring’s arrival, with its warming temperatures, is perfectly timed with the gradual re-opening of our country. Many of us have now received both vaccination shots, allowing us to step into the outside world to make travel plans, tentatively dine indoors and exchange hugs with reunited loved ones. While initially the lockdown was a big jolt [...]
Pat Taub