Category: The Aging Journal
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The Wisdoms of Aging
I recently celebrated my 80th birthday with a dozen friends from our senior community. As we reflected on our lives, their shared wisdom about aging well wasn’t just heartwarming—it aligned perfectly with current academic research on happiness later in life. Their comments emphasized frequent moments of reflection, focusing on what…
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Celebrating 80 years!
My upcoming 80th birthday is likely my last major milestone birthday. The NIH predicts that a white woman who is 80 today will likely live only another 7-9 years. Reaching 80 means I survived once-common childhood diseases (like polio and measles). I and my living age-mates also escaped (mercifully) homicide,…
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Is it time to retire?
“It’s time to retire” I announced to my friend today. Although I retired from my career almost 20 years ago, I’ve stayed stressed, busy and fulfilled with unpaid volunteer responsibilities. These responsibilities provide the ongoing and rewarding challenges of learning, problem-solving, leadership and social engagement. I find purpose, satisfaction and…
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Super-Aging: A Perspective
Super-Agers: A Perspective The news media is filled with stories of Super-agers. Super-agers are defined as those over 80 with the cognitive functioning of those 20 or 30 years younger. The sensational (and advertising dependent) news media is happy to publicize super-age studies. They use these studies to advertise exercise…
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For All Eternity
Marriages are often an attraction of opposites. In our marriage, one of the many disagreements is where our mortal remains should be placed after death. My husband wants to visit my grave and remember the good times. He believes that his descendants may wish to honor his grave with a…
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Exploring Superstitions: The Evil Eye and Hamsa
Way back in 2001, we escaped the pressures of an increasingly stressful career and traveled to Istanbul. An old woman, learning against the doorway of a closed office on Taksim Square, called out as we passed. She insisted upon giving me a tiny blue glass bead. I offered to pay.…
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Overwhelmed with Paper Memories
Most senior citizens live with huge stacks of paper memories: books, letters, writings, and photos. Some of it is stuff we inherited from ancestors who hoped we would remember them if they wrote it down. Other paper (and now digital) memories are things we saved to inspire reflection on our…
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Cultivating Joy in Troubling Times
It’s impossible to witness the firings of lifetime civil servants and the defunding of humanitarian agencies without despair and anger. Each day’s news delivers yet another hammer blow to my sense of right and wrong. A recent speaker, a pacifist Quaker, immersed us in her anger about the oppression and…
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All Politics is Local…
I’m working very hard to ignore the news these days: tragic photos of Gaza refugees, stories of career civil servants being illegally dismissed, the fear of our many immigrant neighbors; it’s hard to avoid a sense of powerlessness. I get it. My side of the political spectrum lost. The man…
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Five Tips for Elderly Stress Relief
My least favorite word is “should.” When I visualize should I see a parent lecturing a child. Should often accompanies recommendations for lifestyle changes such as diet, exercise and sleep. At the first should, I stop listening. Throughout our long lives, we elderly have developed lifestyle habits which work for…
Uncharted Waters 