Getting Older

I’ve made the decision to lovingly engage with everything that has life. By ‘life’ I refer to everything that lives, grows and dies. By engage, I mean to validate, to respect, to study, to experience, to question…

At the beginning of the growing season, I purchased a beautiful flowering plant. It grows tall and its blooms are bright. The hot summer sun seemed to thwart its growth. I thought, “Well, that was a short blooming season…”

Some activities are bound to be more difficult as we get older. Recently, there was an article on Sixty and Me about older women finding cycling difficult. Until about seven years ago, living at the seaside, I swam every day between April and October…

My husband passed away this June after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Years ago, I had joined a group of Parkinson’s spouses who met monthly to support each other. We were all around the same age, going through the same quandaries…

Up until age 75, I felt 18 years old at the core. The girl I used to be still lived inside me and dictated my approach to life. That girl had always hungered to learn new things. She enjoyed traveling independently, taking a chance on whatever food and lodging…

Have you experienced shifts in your priorities, your goals, and even your dreams throughout your 60s and beyond? Shifts are those changes in our thinking and our attitudes that evolve as we age…

These things seem to happen in a series. As I write this, I realize not everyone in their late 60s or 70s has a fascination with sport or movement. But stay with me, because I think my musings could apply to any pastime, hobby or activity that gives us joy…

My husband passed away three years ago and learning to live alone at 74, for the first time in my life, was a daunting task. Besides dealing with the deafening silence and loneliness, my biggest fears were getting sick or losing my mobility. How would I cope?

For years, I have written reminder notes for myself. My visual memory (the ability to recall what my eyes have seen) has always been particularly strong, but I’ve relied on this trait more in my 60s and 70s. Whether it is because I underwent chemotherapy…

Once we pass age 60, we know the “runway” ahead of us is shorter than it used to be. Yet at the same time we probably have more free time and more resources available to have fun. Raising children and our other obligations are mostly behind us…