BY MICHAEL C. PATTERSON To flourish, dance to the music of your aging process. The dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp wrote a lovely book about aging called Keep It Moving. She makes the point that, too often, the aging process involves a gradual contraction of our physical and mental presence. She encourages us to take inspiration from dancers and to keep moving. To move is to be alive, to engage. Our engagement with life should be expansive; we should expand into our maturity with a dancer’s enthusiasm and creativity. “Opt for expression over observation, action instead of passivity, risk ..read more

Group Trips Open the World to Solo Travelers and Couples, Too. BY ANN RANDALL “Do you feel your new Qi energy?” Arms stretched overhead, 16 women nodded dutifully. We’d flown and driven plenty of Qi-draining hours from all over the country to participate in Road Scholar’s Rejuvenation Retreat for Women. The Qigong class was our introduction to five days of meditation, yoga, and hiking in the California Redwoods with a retired forest service ranger. Also, vegetarian meals eaten communally with the monks and nuns who lived at the Buddhist center serving as the venue. Come evening, sharing wine o ..read more

By SCOTT SCHILL You know how when you are shopping for a new car you start seeing the same make and model everywhere? There is a name for that, it’s called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. Your brain is subconsciously looking for the car, and as a result, you start noticing it more. I experienced the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, but it wasn’t about a silver Volvo, it was about my mom and retirement in America. Call it retirement interrupted. Retirement Interrupted JoJo was vivacious and youthful in appearance and spirit. She was also hyper-flexible, and a lifetime of aerobics had left her in need ..read more

BY ZACHARY FLETCHER In six short months I will vote in my third presidential election cycle. As a relatively recent voter—my first election was 2016, which feels like a long-forgotten memory rather than eight years ago—I have only two full presidential elections under my belt. Both of those elections included candidates nearly 50 years my senior. And two of those candidates—Joe Biden (81) and Donald Trump (77)—are again on the ballot. I would not be considered one of the more experienced voters. Age is clearly on the ballot. Headlines in The New York Times, The Washington Post and other major ..read more

BY JUDY RUCKSTUHL WRIGHT It’s scary—and I’d put it off as long as I could—but it was time. My daughter needed help with my first grandchild, my knees were never again going to calmly negotiate my three-story home of 35 years, and my son was begging me to come live in his mother-in-law suite—all a thousand miles away from the community I’ve lived in and loved for nearly 50 years. So many, many things to think about and think of when moving. Not the least of which is how will I maintain friendships with my beloved friends? And the follow-on question: How do I make new friends at MY age? I’ve lea ..read more

BY GRETCHEN STAEBLER I was 50 when I accompanied my younger sister’s trek across the country to move into our childhood home in Southwest Washington with our aging, widowed mother. My sister was leaving a big job and planned to turn our father’s spacious workshop into an art studio and see if she could make a living being a creative. Our independent and feisty mother didn’t need much help then—or thought she didn’t. Still, I knew living with her would be challenging, and when I flew home to North Carolina, I thanked the universe I wasn’t the one moving into my old bedroom in the basement. I co ..read more

In your ongoing journey engaging with life, you can take greater control of the ways you travel and the destination you seek. BY JEANETTE LEARDI From the moment you were born, you set out on a path of living, hopefully into a long, vibrant old age. If you’re lucky, you’ve been able to sustain a pattern of healthy development throughout your later years. However, how smoothly you travel today can be determined by certain challenges you may not have encountered in youth and midlife—precisely because you’re an older adult. In some important ways, our later years can be a time in which it may be h ..read more

By Caroline Paul Reviewed By Victoria Starr Marshall I’m a downhill skier. At 67, I ski stronger and better than at any time in my life. Same goes for my husband, David. He’s 71. We spend a good portion of the winter at our condo in Sun Peaks, British Columbia, and I have to say it’s the best retirement community ever. Our ski friends range in age from their mid-50s to mid-80s, and from what aging stereotypes would have you believe, none of us act our age. Most days we spend hours playing outside together. Once or twice a week we get together for après ski—enjoying drinks, homemade “appys,” an ..read more

The futility of trying to figure out what lies ahead. By STEPHEN SINCLAIR When I was nine or 10 years old my mother was ill and my father was having a hard time keeping our dairy farm going. It was a Saturday afternoon and I was alone in the barn doing chores. As always, I had the barn radio turned to a station that broadcast music so I could have company while I worked. I didn’t really listen to the songs but rather used the sound to keep my fear and anxiety at bay. I remember I had just finished sweeping the walkway when I heard these lyrics being sung by a female singer: “Que sera, sera. Wh ..read more

By HOWIE SILVER There is an old saying: “You don’t stop learning when you get old; you only get old when you stop learning.” A few years back, I found myself aging (mentally) from a decline in learning and intellectual activity. As a young man, I went to college and graduate school. After that, I became of professor of mathematics. Throughout my career, I have enjoyed teaching and learning. But after retirement, I slowly began to lose my edge—my learning instinct. I still read library books and the newspaper, but it wasn’t the same. Perhaps my mind was aging from my lack of intellectual stimul ..read more