Articles

A hand-written letter from Cuba arrived at the desk of the director of the American Occupational Therapy Association, where I’d been working for more than eight years. Passed on to me to translate because of my Spanish fluency, the writer, Armando Hernández, explained that he suffered from a rare disease that had already destroyed one kidney and most of the other. He had … [Read more...] about Letter from Cuba

In his book, Dressed to Kill, Colin McDowell admonishes women to never dress too closely by the book, because it looks as though you possess no real personality of your own. He says that breaking rules is an amazingly effective way of feeling better about yourself. 

Fashion magazines love to publish lists of what’s in and what’s no … [Read more...] about Your Image: Dressing By the Book

No…not that word.  When it comes to “F words,” the socially naughty one really doesn’t pack much punch.  It’s a rude, lazy way of letting off steam and not much more. You say it in exasperation.  You voice it with explosive frustration.  You yell it when you feel powerless.  And when you’re done, nothing much has changed.  It’s just a meaningless jumble of letters with a bad … [Read more...] about The “F Word”

During the past year, social and cultural expectations and lifestyle traditions relating to age, as well as the influence of the retirement culture, have played a huge role in how you as an older individual have changed and aged. You probably are not aware of how many of those expectations and traditions have influenced your aging process, and how you think about aging.  If … [Read more...] about Forces That Shape Your Life

Just a few words about the purported "flu epidemic". I am not sure when people will finally realize that flu shots do not prevent the flu. Most people are very much aware that these shots can provide side effects that are similar to symptoms of the flu.

The CDC appears to be closely connected to the drug companies who sell the vaccines, and I suspect … [Read more...] about Thoughts on the Flu

 What makes the best of us older than we should and can be Most of us think we know what age is to us; however we miss the most important point.  We may know how we feel, what we like or don’t like, what we’d wish for or what we put up with… Yet the most amazing and simple point that most of us haven’t considered is inside our mind, and that is … [Read more...] about Choose Your IMAGE of Age, or Your IMAGE Will Choose Your Age For You!

Are you able to be aware of when you need to change or adjust something about yourself? Or is it easier or more comfortable to think others and life are the ones that need to change? 

One of the ways I know I need to change is when I find myself thinking thoughts in a certain way for an extended time, or I think pretty much the same types of thoughts … [Read more...] about When or How Do You Know It’s You Who Needs to Change?

Like many women in their late 60s, I’d enjoyed a varied career and also raised four children and a foster son, mostly as a single parent. In 2000, at 62, I’d gone off to join the Peace Corps in Honduras, and, after returning to the States, for the first time, became a Spanish interpreter and freelance writer, while also looking after my mother in her last years. Then, in … [Read more...] about Seizing On Life’s Unexpected Opportunities: My Sudan Journey

A friend in her 60s who has kept her trademark long blonde hair joined me for breakfast looking twenty years younger in a hip maxi dress and shell jewellery after her daily two hour yoga session and swapped notes on her latest travels to exotic destinations. Later that day another friend in her 70s met me for lunch looking customarily chic with her signature … [Read more...] about Beautiful at Any Age

I am often amazed and amused by the various attitudes many have regarding getting ‘old’. Some refuse to discuss the subject while to others age is a fact of life and they don’t fret about it. Each of us is a certain age; we can’t do a thing about the truth. We can joke about it, lie about it or be realistic about it.

Some spend most of their years dreading ‘old age’. … [Read more...] about Dreading ‘Old Age’