It is incumbent upon us as individuals and as a society to work diligently towards a day when we see a person before us who has lived a long life and we no longer patronize them, disrespect them or dismiss them.
We all long for a love that will last -- one that will withstand the times when we are sick or weak, when we hope that the memory of all that we were can trump the reality of who become.
The advent of another birthday recently prompted me to ask myself: At what age does a person stop getting older and actually become old? In other words, when does old age begin?
In addition to e-mails, sit down and write a few long, detailed, personal, honest letters expressing your ideas and feelings. Write them in longhand, if you still know how to do that.
Beyond the raw details of her daughter's death, beyond her grasp to understand its aftermath and its applied metaphor, Blue Nights deals with the physical "dismantling" of Didion herself.
Into every life a little rain must fall. Sometimes a torrential downpour, or even a Tsunami perhaps. And we hang on for dear life and find out what we are made of.
In a sense all of us are nearing home, but we need to learn what it means to grow older, and with God's help, to grow older with grace and find the guidance to finish well.
Brennan Manning has preached his vagabond evangelist variation of the same theme for over forty years now: God loves you as you are and not as you should be.
Already, boomers are rewriting the script on aging, reinventing retirement and even death. Choosing the right to die, a.k.a. euthanasia, when we're ill, frail, or no longer have quality of life, may well be the new hot button issue.
There is no way to describe the hopeless feeling of knowing that you only have a few years to live, and most of that time will be in the disabled condition.
At 86, I find my crowded Rolodex full of parentheses. That's what I add to names of people there who have died. It's both a joy and a sorrow to see those names as I look for others to call.
I remember the moment I truly understood my mother, a woman I couldn't understand for the life of me ... I saw her loneliness that day. I saw it because, for the first time, I felt glimmers of it in my own life.
I recently commented on Facebook that in 20 years I will be in my late 50s, caring for my elderly baby boomer parents, and trying to pay for the young...
In June, we moved my mother into a room in the Assisted Living wing of the retirement community where she currently lives. This decision was not an easy one to make.
It's simply unnatural to encourage old people to live on well past their functionality; I'm convinced of this now more than ever since I returned from...
It is a mistake to believe that it is normal for old people to be incapable of leading active, involved, satisfying, and personally meaningful lives.
The first 50-year period is already a known quantity: a person is born, passes to adulthood, finds a partner and raises children. But no such certainty applies to the next 50 years. What do you expect your second lifetime to be?
Emily, Alone is a book of quiet yet stunning beauty; steady and trim from the outside, like its protagonist, and, just like her, stirring inside with intense observations, and a strong attachment to living.
These environmental considerations may not slow the progression of dementia or Alzheimer's disease, but they may help seniors with memory loss preserve their sense of self and purpose in life.
By Paula Span The New York Times Wendy Miller first became alarmed when her mother began complaining during their phone conversations. "I'm spending ...
As long as I can remember, people have been telling me to relax, enjoy the moment, smell the roses and just take it easy -- to live life one day at a time.
A few months back, I had the wonderful opportunity to interview an amazingly stylish 98-year-old woman by the name of Rose. Here are some of her cherished fashion secrets.
For me, putting a pile of poems in the center of the room has the same effect as a punchbowl laced with LSD. It opens, expands, lifts, and loosens separate selves enough to stir a sensation of collective consciousness.
Real happiness lies in our ability to take ourselves, and our own big plans, a little less seriously. So spiritual maturity and laughter go hand in hand.
For more and more seniors, retirement doesn't mean a debt-free life of leisure. An increasing number of Americans aged 65 and older are declaring bank...
