I Turned Old – Overnight

I Turned Old – Overnight

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...
Finding My Purpose in Retirement

Finding My Purpose in Retirement

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...
Dynamic Aging with Osteoporosis

Dynamic Aging with Osteoporosis

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...
Sound Aging

Sound Aging

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...
The Joy of Collaboration

The Joy of Collaboration

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...
For the Love of Pat

For the Love of Pat

I don’t know what the odds are of a couple to actually have a marriage that really works. My wife, Pat, and I were married for 68 years before she died earlier this year from COVID-related issues. The last three or four years were more difficult because she was...