We’re a community of people who are changing the paradigm of aging by challenging the stereotypes of aging by sharing TRUE stories about aging dynamically, to explore what’s possible, inspire one another and empower by example.
When my husband Don and I met in 1966 at the University of Kansas, it would have been hard to predict the passion for worldwide travel that has dominated our lives. Early indicators were not particularly aligned. Don grew up in a small rural farming town in western...
I guess it’s never too late, for any of it. After pulling up roots and criss-crossing the country, after health issues, loss, and heartbreak, my life is full to brimming again. I’m centered again. And though I didn’t really envision myself doing this again, here I am...
Have you ever dreamed so big, so clear, so exciting, only to sabotage yourself the moment you started? Enter the usual suspects: resistance, procrastination, and self-doubt claiming their seat at the table, smirking as if daring you to make them leave. I know this...
It took 32 years for me to make my dream of publishing a children’s picture book a reality. I had dreamed of publishing a children’s book since our children were toddlers, reading bath books and board books. I was always especially enamored with picture books,...
I believe that dynamic aging means challenging myself and my assumptions, changing and growing. The alternative is passively accepting a story of decline and disempowerment. I moved from passively accepting my decline to changing and growing at the age of 53. In late...
As I approached my 75th birthday one year ago, I started feeling ill at ease in the home I had loved for over 16 years. When I purchased it at 59, I’d wanted a large garden, a driveway and attached garage, plus a guest bedroom and second bath. But now, in some vague...
“I'm going to walk the Appalachian Trail!” my 70-year-old younger brother Ron announced in January 2018 while I was hiking with him on a trail outside of St. George Utah, where he had lived the last four decades "Since Edie died a few months ago I have been...
Reflecting on aging is like turning the kaleidoscope a notch, where each turn reveals a different pattern. At the beginning of the pandemic, I decided to return to school at the age of 61 for a Master’s Degree in Public Health. In 2020 I was worried that if the...
It’s a beautiful morning in early September here in New Mexico. I’m on my road bike with members of my cycling group. Well, not with them, more like following them as they speed ahead of me. I try to keep their bright jerseys in sight. Our route is mostly flat, giving...
I was just reminded of why I (and we!) choose a life of dynamic aging.
After a Dragon Boat paddling practice this spring, I couldn’t find my water bottle and gloves. I knew I had gotten out of the boat with them and thought I had set them on the dock, but they were gone. I walked up the public dock to the nearby café to see if anyone from the team had grabbed them. Nope. So I headed back down the long dock to look.
Eventually I spotted them floating in the water near some big pilings between the workout boats.
Hmmmmm. I think I can get that. First foolish thought. I edged along the lower beams below the dock and climbed down on the steel structures close to the water where they were just out of reach. It looked like too big a stretch to get them from the bow of the boat and I didn’t have a hook. All was good until that one misstep — stepping down on something I thought looked solid. But wasn’t.
Kersplash.
My first thought, immersed in the 50 degree muddy river water in March in Portland, Oregon, was, Well, that was stupid.
My friend and fitness trainer calls that “instant regret!”
Second thought, How am I going to get out of the water?
Next thought, I don’t have too long because the water is damn cold.
Final thought, And nobody knows I’m down here.
Boots filled with water, clothing soaked, no one to call for help, I eventually managed to pull myself back up on to the dock.
It was an uncomfortable (and cold) life lesson. At 73, I’m apparently not too old for more life lessons. I wish.
My biggest takeaway –– if I hadn’t been actively doing strength training, I doubt I could have pulled myself out of the cold water, especially with layers of soggy clothes and boots full of water.
I went through a lot of emotions while I was driving home, sinking into my heated car seats and starting to thaw out. I was feeling the endorphin high of having cheated death again as I called my trainer, Nancy Allen Burns of Body Wisdom Studio, on the drive home to thank her for making me pick up heavy weights two times a week which gave me the upper body strength to pull myself out of the water. It probably saved my life. She’s 76 and my hero.
I was bone-tired exhausted when I got home. I didn’t think I had been in danger of dying, but I also think getting out of the water in time wasn’t a sure thing either.
Now my incentive remains even higher to keep moving, to keep a diverse movement practice, to maintain strength as I age. Dynamic Aging definitely improves my quality of life, but it also can save my life, too.
Sylvia Fox, Editor
Portland, Oregon
After losing my beloved husband of 65 years in 2016, I remained in our beautiful home overlooking Rose City Golf Course in Northeast Portland. Our six children, their spouses and children – and even their children – had loved this home for 31 years, too. Why leave,...
I retired in 2020. It had been six months since the death of my first husband, the father of my children, and eight months since I lost my husband. I had to admit a lot of changes had taken place and retirement was one more big adjustment. I told myself I didn’t need...
I joined Ranger Kielak for a 9-mile walk yesterday in the final week of his Walk Across America to raise money for charity. Ranger’s journey started in March 2024 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with a goal of walking 3,000 miles through 10 states to raise $100K for...
People ask what inspires the senryus that I write. Not with humility, but with the truth, my senryus are to some extent inspired by a basic ineptitude that I have. My high school English teacher graded my essays and creative writing with two grades: one for content...
Fourteen years into retirement and I just figured out I’m allergic to a firm, structured, committed schedule. I’m in awe of my retired friends my age who volunteer on the same day at the same place for 10-plus years or take the same fitness class on the same day each...
This May I turned 86 and my list of things I want to BE, DO and HAVE continues to grow. I guess I thought someday the list would dwindle or disappear. But it hasn’t. My curiosity keeps pushing the envelope to discover what is possible – physically, mentally,...
When I graduated from high school in 1970, the book “Our Bodies, Ourselves” hit the shelves and caused an instant sensation. Young women like myself, who up until then had only brief and whispered discussions about sex, could read in bold print and see explicit photos...
As a child, I was always fascinated by the ocean and marine life, especially whales and dolphins. I grew up in Walnut Creek, CA, a few hours from the coast. My mother shared her love for the ocean and made sure her children spent lots of time at the beach. Weekends...
My husband and I bought a house in the year 2000. It faced the freeway. Other than that, I liked the house but I couldn’t see living right across from the freeway. Since my husband had already fallen in love with the shop behind the house, he said to me, “I will...
I am a 92-year-old competitive dragon-boat paddler living with my partner Anne Clark, 81, in a retirement community with a view of the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. Anne and I are members of the Portland Golden Dragons paddling team that practices on the river...
When I was growing up, I loved language. I remember reading James Herriot and how beautifully he described the life of a veterinarian. And A Tale of Two Cities in the 9th grade launched my love of great literature. When I reached college, my love of writing and...
Neighbors, friends, and even the mailman ask me why I'm traveling 9,260 miles from home this winter, enduring at least, if lucky, a 22-hour flight followed by a grueling five-hour car ride to travel the last 100 miles to the village where I stay in Bali, Indonesia....
My first thought as I awake each morning is often “I wonder how the surf is today?” At 45, I was late to start surfing but was hooked the moment I took my first wave. I feel lucky that I live in Los Osos on the Central California Coast, close to the ocean and just a...
I did not move to Thailand in 2005 looking for a spiritual teacher. It simply happened. In the summer of 2005, my husband, 13-year-old son, and I relocated from our suburban home in Northern California to Bangkok for my husband’s job. Although excited to be living in...
It’s rather common knowledge that past age 90 or even before, one is in the realm of “patch up.” This includes eating and drinking more carefully, and dealing with various infirmities that seem to clock in regularly with age. I’m in that category at 96+ but besting it...
I have had a fulfilling career as a speech and language pathologist for the past 40 plus years. As my husband climbed the corporate ladder and our family moved around the country to meet opportunities for him, I was always able to continue to follow my passion and...
I remember like it was yesterday, but it was 46 years ago. At 13 years old, I watched my 39-year-old mother die of a heart attack. Even at that age, I heard from someone, somewhere, that women’s symptoms present differently than men when having a heart attack. I...
My father died at 69 of a heart attack. Rumor has it his father also died at 69 of a heart attack. When I turned 69, I worried each time I had the slightest chest pain. When I turned 70 and didn't die, I celebrated by getting a tattoo and have gotten another each year...
I went to bed on St Patrick's Day 2023 in a rosy glow after spending the evening with good friends. When I woke up the next morning, I thought I was drunk. I couldn't walk straight, my hearing was off, and as I discovered when I drove my car, my thinking was off....
When I retired in 2020 at 70, I began a campaign to reach back in time to try to reconnect with people who had been important to me earlier in my life. I sent out 10 letters to people who had touched my heart but with whom I had lost contact along the way. Since we...
Retirement is one of the hardest jobs I’ve had. I’ve had a lifetime of being extremely productive and busy. My career path, starting in the 70s, was an explosive rise to the top. I made a ‘how-to’ film in college: “How to Have an Orgasm,” which was distributed to...
I still feel about 42, even though it’s been around a decade and a half since I was that age. I’ve loved every year so far, but in my 40’s I felt like I’d grown into my skin, my brain and my sense of self. I’ve always remembered an essay by Carol Shields in her...
The first time I noticed it was hard to hear was in 10th grade. Voices started sounding fuzzy, and sometimes I couldn’t understand teachers when they faced the blackboard. A screening test showed mild hearing loss, and given I had measles as a young child, the...
Like many of us, I experienced several losses at the beginning of Covid which made the isolation especially hard to deal with. Professionally, I was a Marriage and Family Therapist and Clinical Art Therapist in private practice for over 20 years. It wasn’t an easy...