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.
I was traveling in my mid-20s when a friend and I stopped for lunch. I ordered an iced tea. It tasted profoundly like dish soap. I confided in the person I was lunching with and she said, “send it back”. I couldn’t imagine it! “I just won’t drink it,” I said. My...
I’ve come from a long family history of musicians. My maternal grandmother was a professional violinist, piano teacher, and church music director for Southern Baptists in Arkansas. My mother was a keyboardist and organist in the church where I grew up. My father was a...
I was 60 years old when I was first diagnosed with osteoporosis after my first DXA scan, a low-dose, Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry scan to assess bone density and predict the risk of fractures. It was an unpleasant—and not uncommon—surprise. Like many women of my...
The poet Jane Hirshfield wrote the words: A day is vast. Until noon. Then it’s over. As a morning person, the words rang true for me. I am one who wakes up early with anticipation of the possibilities that the day can hold. But by two in the afternoon, the excitement...
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...
This summer I’ve been deep diving how to address my osteoporosis, making decisions on what movement works for me, what I should avoid, and how to support my exercise through informed nutrition. I’m particularly indebted to the work of Katy Bowman, which provided a platform for safe movement as I have moved on to the Onero Program, a brief high intensity exercise program specifically targeting bone density.
In my deep dive, here are programs I’ve used that you might find helpful too.
Nutritious Movement, of course
I have studied and worked with Katy Bowman for years, beginning with her groundbreaking book Move Your DNA: Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement, and later her bestselling book Dynamic Aging: Simple Exercises for Whole-Body Mobility (co-authored by Joan Virginia Allen). Katy’s virtual classes are an affordable boot camp for anyone aging. That’s all of us!
If you want to experience Katy’s classes in person, there’s still time to give yourself the gift of a three-day movement retreat. ‘Dynamic Aging: A Cross-Generational Approach to a Movement-Rich Life’ is Oct. 3-5 in Boone, North Carolina. You can learn whole body movements we all need to age well in our daily life activities. And, if you have foot, hip, knee or other issues, this is still the place to go.
Other instructors I’ve followed – who have a foundation of Katy’s work – have enhanced my aging journey as well. They include:
Body Wisdom, Nancy Allen Burns
Body Wisdom Studio in Point Richmond, CA with Nancy Allen Burns offers classes based on a foundation of Katy’s Restorative Exercise work. The studio’s virtual offerings are robust, taught by an excellent group of professional instructors. It includes access to hundreds of classes in the virtual library. Nancy is a leader in strength training for our aging/ageless population.
Petra Fisher
Petra Fisher provides consistently helpful foundational programs. She’s an expert in pelvic floor function as well as foot health – and she offers much more. It’s fun to follow her as she teaches and creates as she travels the world surfing and hiking.
Alison Crouch
I’ve also taken osteoporosis classes from Alison Crouch via her MoveSmart program. It provides a gentle foundation from someone like Alison who actually has osteoporosis. She provides leadership about safe, effective movement. Read her Osteoporosis story in our magazine from two years ago.
All of us Dynamic Agers have curiosity and commitment in common as we age well. Thanks for reading our Magazine and joining us on this ongoing journey. We’d love to hear from you. How are you aging well today?
“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 already in my sixties when I first began to write my memoir The Coconut Latitudes. The last of my closest family members had died and I was just beginning to consider (and worry about) my own mind failing me as I aged, and whether our family story would die with...
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...