Fashion commentator Emily Chou observes “Every time you dress, you’re making choices and even an “I-don’t-care” message...
Positive Self-Image10
Why I’m Anti-Bucket List
I think I will tear my hair out if one more person asks me, “How’s your bucket list coming alone?” The implication is that I’m running out of time to see Morocco, jump out of an airplane, learn Italian or any number of demanding feats. If I were to answer, “The hell with a bucket list!” in all likelihood I’d be [...]
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
Survival Tips for 2019
When someone wishes me “Happy New Year” I’m tempted to respond, “What’s to be happy about given all the bad news in the country?” We’re faced with a government shutdown, record numbers of migrant families held in cages, a mustached war hawk Presidential advisor and massive social and income inequality. Once I settle down I realize [...]
Pat Taub
Beating Back the Holiday Blues
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 wait a minute, let’s pause [...]
Pat Taub
Miserable with Getting Old
I recently received an email from a WOW reader, who described herself as “miserable with aging.” She wrote, “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 [...]
Pat Taub
20 Empowering & Inspiring Quotes About Getting Older
Guest Post by Becca Armstrong-Benson A sister writer in the UK has assembled this wonderful list of wise sayings from people from all walks of life, ranging from fashion designers and actors, to activists, astronauts and comedians. These quotes were originally posted at: https://www.uksmobility.co.uk/blog/2018/06/old-age-quotes/ “I [...]
Pat Taub
How Learning to Play the Ukulele Helped Cure My ‘Nameless Depression”
Guest Post by Martha Rice You wake up one morning, and it’s back. You don’t know why. Things have been going along pretty smoothly. But on this morning, you wake up and for no apparent reason, you don’t have the spirit to get out of bed. You are suffering from a condition that I call “nameless depression,” a debilitating feeling [...]
Pat Taub
What Will You Do With the Rest of Your Life?
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
Breaking Free from Expectations
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