OlderWiserWomen

Here in the US, it’s just about Thanksgiving Day. I don’t know about you, but for years I thought it was all about watching the parades, Mom cooking huge meals (that included getting the good china and linen out) and eating. The smells always sent a message of comfort, not to mention the fact that Mom makes a mean dressing.

While those days are past, I’ve looked for other ways to celebrate. Hence…Giving Thanks. How often do we stop to tell the people in our lives how thankful we are that they are here? Some of you may do a great job with that…most however, do not. As a society, we seem to have lost some basics…like please and thank you.

So…let’s spend this week (or longer), Giving Thanks to those who have made a difference in our lives, our society, our world.

To all the women who have come before and have paved the way for us to age the “Baby Boomer Way”….thanks. To all of you reading, thanks for taking your time out to read these words and for helping to shape OlderWiserWomen. And to Mom…thanks for the memories.

Namaste.

Jackie is a 78 year old woman, who is racing today in Florida in the Ford Ironman Championship.

“You just decide you’re going to do this… and you tell yourself you will do it.” Jackie Yost, Ironman Athlete

Read more about the race and Jackie here.

OlderWiserWomen is lucky in that women contact us all the time about their writing, their stories, the work they are doing and the businesses they run. The more visible we all are, the better in my opinion. Here are a few blogs/websites that have been brought to my attention…

• a little red hen: peace, politics, yarnlife after 60
• Pet Portraits by Diane
• Wise Women Resources
• Inspiring Woman
• Talk to Bev

Enjoy!

When I was growing up, I never thought about the idea of middle age so much, and certainly, old age described my grandmother’s age. But then…getting older is not what it use to be!

Certainly as we’ve all gotten older, we have changed our definitions of what middle age and old age are - but for most of us, it’s still rather a vague number. While our average life expectancy in the US is around 76 years for women, it makes no sense to me that middle age would be 38. I certainly didn’t feel middle age at 38. May now at 51…but not at 38.

And “old age”? I’m not even sure when that’s suppose to begin. For me, it’s not really a number, but more of an attitude. In my practice, I see women in their 30’s and 40’s who are “old” - their health, their beliefs, their looks. At the same time, I see women in their 70’s and 80’s who cannot possibly be “old”.

How do you define middle age and old age?