Perhaps it was the haircut or the makeup applied for the backyard photo shoot (a new profile picture for Facebook). Or perhaps it was the smile in my eyes as I looked at my son, the photographer. But when the digital image opened on my computer screen, I saw a...

In the end, it comes down to love and death -- trying to win more of one, while cheating the other. Neither, I suspect, will be particularly successful in the long run, and yet I persist. This is my confession: I am a mid-life workaholic.

Oh, trust me. I know...

Umbrellas implode. Socks and gloves disappear. Car keys jump from pockets. Phone numbers written on scraps of paper flutter away like birds. Dreams fade. Love dies.

By the time we reach mid-life, there is a long list of absences -- people, opportunities, aspirations -- due to departures, gradual or sudden....

From the first tentative baby steps of "I think I might" to the giant leap spanning "I will...and I am," a lot of territory is covered. At midlife, if we take our dreams seriously (and if not now, then when?), it is sobering to think of all it will take...

Nothing says Christmas quite like squid.

Every year, from the time I was knee-high to the kitchen counter, we could count on seafood bound to give a kid nightmares: octopuses with long tentacles thawing in the sink and whole squid that had to be cleaned and the eyeballs cut...

Malinka is a stately old gal, with her thick white hair and a robust stature that might call to mind Queen Victoria. Malinka is a centenarian--in dog years, that is. By the human calendar she is 14, an august age for her breed of Polish Tatra Mountain Sheepdog (or Owczarek...

Down the street where I live, Baby Jesus and Jack-o'-lanterns are next-door neighbors. Not far away, an inflated turkey bobbles its waddled neck in the breeze. Welcome to the November-December fusion I call the Holiday Blur, which can turn what the carol crooners call "the most wonderful time of the...

I don't know what I was searching for exactly as I looked through a hodgepodge of photographs, the kind that get put in an oversized envelope with more stray snapshots and then stored in a box on a shelf someplace. I dumped out the envelope, pawed through a collection of...

In the fruit bowl this morning, between the blushing nectarines and the tart granny smiths, rested a pear, succulent in its golden skin and as smooth as an airbrushed fashion model. Purchased green and hard days ago, the pear had matured into perfection that can only be attained, moment by...

Part coach, part spiritual mentor, and part career mechanic, Tama Kieves gives people something to believe in: their dreams. "Your dreams never die, even though you may feel removed from them. They are such a source of true identity, energy and power," Kieves said. For many people, particularly at midlife,...

One day last week, I took the 11:50am train to Chicago for an 11:45am lunch. No, that's not a typographical error, nor are there any time-zone adjustments or wormholes in space involved. This clear case of mental meltdown is a symptom of an affliction I call five kinds of crazy....

Long before the rock band Styx broke through in the late 1970s with its showy, theatrical style, and decades before a solo career that still attracts hardcore fans of classics such as "Lady," and "Come Sail Away," there was a boy with an accordion on the south side of Chicago....

Kathryn Krivy knows the value of a good life, one filled with sweet tastes and the sublime joy of making delectable treats for others to enjoy: lavender-infused apricot jam, French nougat dotted with roasted nuts, shortbread with lemon zest and poppy seed. Her senses are sharper, perhaps, and her appreciation...

In the end, his wise words became the basis of the eulogy I gave for my father when he died six years ago at the age of 87. That tribute to him, however, became my rule for living, especially at midlife.

I first heard his words on the occasion...

The marquee announced an auspicious event: The 50th anniversary tour of the Beach Boys, whose guitar strumming and tight harmonies helped usher in a new era of music. A half century ago, the Beach Boys were the three teenaged Wilson brothers -- Brian, Carl and Dennis -- cousin Mike Love...

The heron, I suspected, had something to say, not that I expected it to break out into speech or even birdsong. Yet as this great, gray-feathered creature folded its long legs, flapped its expansive wings and settled on my garage roof, I regarded it as a sign of some sort,...

"All art," says Mia McNary, "comes out of emotion."

As an artist and a mother, McNary has a full repertoire. She knows the joy of the accomplishments of her three children: Patrick, 13, whom she describes as a "deep thinker"; Mary Jane, 10, who is "super creative" and Colin, 12,...

The music pulsed through the room a little too loudly, its rhythm bouncing off walls and bodies until we began to move in an uneven unison, our hands, feet and hips trying to mimic our teacher's every move.

To the outside world, we were a dozen sweaty women -- at...

Like a worn-out sweater or a tattered blanket full of moth holes, it no longer serves any useful purpose other than being familiar. It isn't even that comforting. But for years, without knowing any better, we have wrapped ourselves up in it. I'm talking about our stories.

These are...

We could all use a little grace now and then. Whether you define it as an unexpected blessing, a stroke of luck, or a spiritual wink from above, grace breathes into ordinary life with encouragement and inspiration. Fortune and fortitude rolled into one, grace keeps us going, particularly on the...