I’m not sure I have a lot to say about this topic because my parents didn’t actually age–Mom died at sixty, Dad  at seventy-four, and husband’s dad at sixty-five. But I feel compelled to speak to it because it’s a huge issue for so many Baby Boomers. I’m watching my friends’ parents age. Dee’s widowed mom is in her early eighties and lives in an assisted living facility. She sits, sleeps, watches TV, and goes down to the dining room for meals and the occasional game of cards. Dee goes to see her several times a week to take her groceries, do her laundry, and check on her. Emily’s dad…

I miss my kid. It doesn’t matter that he’s almost 32 years old, married, and has been living 2,000 miles away for nearly nine years. I miss my kid. We generally manage to see one another at least four or five times a year. His dad and I get on a plane or the kid stops by here on what we affectionately refer to as a “fly-by.” He comes through town on his way to or from a business trip. We get to see each other pretty frequently really. And why I’m whining I’ll never know because I talk to him almost daily thanks to free long distance on cell…

…you’re turning sixty today! Like you need your little sis to remind you of this fact! Kate is my second oldest sister, which means, yes, I have another even older sister! Because my mom died at age sixty, that number is huge in my life. In a couple of years, it will be my number.  I figure when my time comes, I’ll either be dead like mom or I can safely stop worrying about dying at sixty.  Some days I seriously worry about that; other days it’s just in the back of my hypochondriacal mind. (WordPress tells me hypochondriacal isn’t a word–well, it should be.) Mostly I try hard to…

…is over. About ten years ago, Neighbor Mary and I started swimming at a convent/conference center near my house. Tuesdays and Thursdays, we went to water aerobics at eight-thirty a.m. and then often, I’d swim laps with the sisters on Wednesdays and Fridays. I love to swim…I don’t follow astrology, so I have no idea if Libras are water people, as opposed to air and earth and fire. I just know I love being in the water. I always have. I learned to swim in Lake Michigan. My mom taught all four of us kids when we’d go up to Muskegon State Park for camping weekends.  She insisted we all…

I finished a big editing gig today and I don’t have anything new coming until next week—that’s unusual for me. Normally, one job follows another and sometimes they even overlap. It’s a good thing to be so busy and to know that work is coming in and that my clients need me. I love that feeling. But today, I heaved a large sigh of relief after I sent the invoice for this project…not because of the project—it was fine. Rather, it was because I was completely jacked up about having a few days to work on my novels. So, did I stay at the computer and write? Nope. I did…

I hate, hate, hate being so body aware, something that has just happened since I reached the age of menopause. No, I’m not talking about my weight or my body’s appearance this time. I’m talking about the inside of my body. Every little twinge or ache or pain or gurgle sends me rushing to the Web to figure out what’s “wrong” with me. My shoulder hurts and my left arm aches—dear heaven, I’m having a heart attack! Doesn’t it say right there on womenandheartattack.com that left arm pain is one of the first signs in a woman? Ohgod, ohgod, ohgod—take an aspirin, call 911… My mom died young of a…

Well, I woke up this morning to birds singing and the sun trying to burn through a little spring fog. I was still in my own bed, in my own house  but I didn’t assume, as others might, that the Rapture had not happened and I didn’t get to go to heaven. I checked Yahoo! News and a couple of other sites for verification. Nope, it appears that we are all still here on Earth. I’m so glad! I like it here, I like my life and my job and my friends and family. I like my little garden out in front of my house on the prairie. I like…

Okay, I confess, I’ve had a tiny knot in my stomach all day today and it’s still there. I don’t actually believe that the Rapture is going to happen today–my common sense and my good Christian Church Disciples of Christ upbringing have come to the rescue every time I started to clutch. I know that people have been predicting the End of the World as We Know It for centuries, but thanks to the Internet, this is the first time I’ve been so aware of one of these calls to arms. A part of me has to give the folks who spread the word some credit–they did one heckuva job…