Getting Older

How would you describe being 60 years old in 2 words? That was the deceptively simple question that I recently asked the women in our Sixty and Me community. Why “deceptively simple?” Because, shorter definitions are often the hardest to give. As Mark Twain once said, “I would have written a shorter letter but I didn’t have the time.” Read More

Why is it that so many women, once they reach a certain age (usually taken to be about fifty), allow themselves to sink into grannydom; yet again, living within the expectations of others. Those expectations include putting on weight, doing strange things to their hair, dressing old, baking, disappearing, baby sitting, knitting… knitting?!?!

So, I’m busy deleting all those Facebook sidebar adverts for funeral plans, lawyers who will arrange Power of Attorney and annuity providers when it suddenly hits me: who the cotton-picking heck do these people think I am? Closely followed by: who do I think I am? Read More

What does “home” mean to you? I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. For the past year, it’s been a theme that I’ve explored in my writing. The protagonist struggles with this question in my latest novel. Then, as the migrant crisis overseas intensified, I was caught up in thinking about how those countless numbers of people had everything in their lives decimated. I imagined, with a heavy heart, the definition of “home,” for them, will be complex and painful…

I smiled when I read the following quote by David Bowie: “Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been.”

I’ve been mindful of this mantra every day of my life since the age of 50. Read More

Who was it that said they wished they could get to the top of the stairs before they forgot why they wanted to go up there the first place? No, I don’t remember either, but the first three words of that sentence are kind of becoming the leitmotif for my life. Read More

Let’s face it. After the “Over the Hill” birthday cards, banners and party favors begin at age 50, the onslaught of terms used to describe the universal process of getting older – well, really suck. Read More

Getting older was something that I always heard the women in my family talk about. They discussed how awful the “change” was and said that life would never be the same again. It was always a very sad and disappointing topic. Read More

When we are younger, our birthdays are milestones for largely superficial reasons. Maybe we look forward to turning 21 so that we can, officially, go out drinking with our friends. Perhaps we fear turning 30… or 40… or 50 because of the new wrinkles that each decade brings. Read More

Why do we live in the past? Why don’t we look forward to whatever years we have left? Is it because we know we’re going to die? If so, I can’t think of a better reason to enjoy our lives and keep planning for the future. We should never stop dreaming, dancing, laughing and learning. Read More