Stories

My Parkinson’s Journey

My Parkinson’s Journey

I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease at 62. By that point in life I’d become convinced of the close brain-body connection, and what may possibly bypass it. Thirty-eight years before this diagnosis, I had a significant experience one evening while meditating: I was...

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Moving Down the Road

Moving Down the Road

After a lifetime of dreaming, a couple years of scheming and two weeks of intense searching, my wife Christina and I bought our Winnebago Travato this spring. It’s a beaut. A shiny gray 2022 Class B recreation vehicle with low miles in very good condition. After a few...

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Reprioritizing Life After A COVID ‘Hard Stop’

Reprioritizing Life After A COVID ‘Hard Stop’

It had been a crazy, relentless last few weeks in California. I was ramping up my coaching business, teaching virtual fitness classes, hiking daily, taking multiple dog walks, all wedged in with lunches, dinners and visits with family and friends. On Friday night we...

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Peace Corps Volunteers: Full Circle

Peace Corps Volunteers: Full Circle

I have always lived the paradox of desiring both home and adventure. This is how I walk my days. I go big into the world, sometimes weeks, months, even years.  And then I come home. So it is that when I am living in Africa and awash in the wonder and joy of my life, I...

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The Magic of Sisterhood

The Magic of Sisterhood

On November 4, 2023, I’ll complete my fiftieth trip around the sun. I cannot wait to celebrate this milestone, and I know that I have so much to look forward to. I’m lucky. I was born with a gift: I can see my future. I arrived in this world in 1973, the youngest of...

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On Being Elderly

On Being Elderly

Elderly is not a number. Elderly is a physical and mental and emotional state of being. I was elderly when I was 35 but I’m not elderly now, at age 73. At 35, I became elderly overnight. I woke up one morning and I could not put my foot on the floor when I tried to...

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The Next 20 Years

The Next 20 Years

When I hit 55, I did a mathematical calculation about how many months, weeks and days I had in my life until I turned 75. That’s roughly 240 months, 1,042 weeks or 7,300 days, in case you wondered. Seventy-five years old! From the perspective of a 55-year-old, that...

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Dynamic Aging 4 Life

Dynamic Aging 4 Life

What do Grandma Moses and I have in common? We both chose to create something new in our lives and in the world that didn’t exist before. We did this when people might have considered us “old.” We were both 78. That is the age when Grandma Moses began her life as a...

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Satisfaction

Satisfaction

Every ten years or so, I find myself watching Mick Jagger fling himself across the stage like a possessed puppet. With wild-eyed ferocity, he postures and prances in the spastic style he alone owns --- a style still so vital it’s a mind boggle that he’s been doing...

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The Joy is in the Journey

The Joy is in the Journey

At 63 years old, I retired and relocated from California to Oregon with my husband, who was soon to retire. This would be the city we both live in for the rest of our lives and we would be closer to our daughter. And then the COVID pandemic began in earnest. Our move...

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Beating the Odds

Beating the Odds

I feel like I beat the odds when I hiked the Mist Trail up Vernal and Nevada Falls in Yosemite National Park May 20, 2022. The odds? I figured the odds were against me because of my age - 86. I had had a total right hip replacement in October 2020. And I had not done...

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The Lifeline of Friendship

The Lifeline of Friendship

I was raised in a privileged life. A happy childhood in a sylvan Denver suburb, a University of Colorado education, moving to LA where I followed my artistic curiosity and ending up working for Industrial Light and Magic – the Star Wars people. I met my future...

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