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Why is it That – The Hardest Thing to be – Is Yourself?
For the last ten years, I have jokingly said that I am having a mid-life crisis. I mean – it most likely is about the middle of my life – and quite possibly the last third or even quarter of it! In those years, I have quit several jobs when I didn’t “find my bliss”, moved to…
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I Wish I Could Say …
How many times have I said that to myself? How many times have I clammed up and NOT said it? And the times that I did blurt out exactly what I was thinking and feeling? Well … people just aren’t ready for that and it generally does not go well. My problem is – that…
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Fearless and Free: Solo Adventures After 60
In 47 days, I will turn the very exciting age of 65. I am exhilarated about it for a number of reasons; number one – I lived this long. (Not everyone is blessed in this way). Number two – I am now an official Medicare recipient – this is a moment I have been waiting…
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The Labyrinth of Grief
A labyrinth represents a journey in life, often a spiritual or personal one, characterized by twists, turns, and a single, winding path leading to a center and back out. In death, it is a metaphor for the often complex and winding journey people experience while navigating loss and mourning. It is a metaphor – but also a…
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My Anti-Bucket List
Just after the turn of the century – January 1, 2002, I wrote a Bucket List on my flight home from New York City. I had spent New Year’s Eve in Times Square with thousands of other exuberantly celebrating people, waiting for the huge crystal ball to drop at the stroke of midnight. It was…
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Lessons I learned in High School, (At Age 64)
Who would have thought that I would finally learn to love myself in high school? Not when I was a teenager, when peer pressure, cliques, gossip and a bad reputation can ruin a young girl, but at the age of 64. I can’t believe it – but it’s true – I went back to the…
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The Softer Side of Dull
I recently became aware of a Facebook group called “Dull Women’s Club”, and it has close to 350,000 members! I read a couple of the posts from different members and was (mildly) amused enough to join the group. The content consists of people posting a photo of themselves and then describing the rather mundane lives…
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I Love Being Old
It’s the best – Truly! I had always sort of dreaded getting old, and dare I say – was even fearful. Seriously – to the point of preferring an early tragic death, (preferably painless because I am also afraid of pain and suffering) to avoid the inevitable decline of aging. But lately, I have come…
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Our Friday Night “Safety Meetings”
A few years ago, a group of us women, in – or approaching our sixties, formed to meet on Friday nights during Happy Hour. How it came about: One of the husbands of the women apparently attended a “safety meeting” on a weekly basis with a group of his men friends. This group held a…
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It’s Been 7 Hours and Thirty Days…
I keep counting the days. I think that — in my mind, maybe as the number grows – it will hurt less. But it doesn’t. Hurt less. It hurts different – every day the grief morphs into a new version of sadness, anger and barely-able-to-contain irritability. The Five Stages of Grief that you read about…