Wishes
Aging is like a zoom lens. The longer we hang around, the clearer we see what matters. We also see what was worth a second look or might be included in a second chance. Anne Porter’s poem “Five Wishes” is…
The Young Old Decade: Just Enough Left To Make A Difference
“Just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in…”
Kenny Rogers, The First Edition
Spanning ages 65-74, young old is the first of four gradations of being old and serves as a transition zone in which the psychological…
Longevity Capital
By David Solie, MS, PA
This is the age of longevity with a Tsunami of old flooding the social landscape. Initial curiosity by younger generations has quickly given way to alarm. The olds are coming they warn. Their burden will…
Should Older Adults Live With Their Peers?
Environmental gerontologist and social geographer Stephen M Golant, University of Florida has written a brilliant article on where older adults are living now and why they may opt to live with their cohort in the future:
“My focus is on…
Once Young Parents
Worn photographs of once young parents are preludes to well known destinies, historical starting points that stir speculation about what might have been.
This is the space that Deborah Cummins has captured in her striking poem “Another Life.” It reminds…
Legacy Pearls: Uncovering the Secret Stuff
Legacy coaches™ want to know the secret stuff, emotional material that contains the values to be threaded through the person’s legacy quilt. Sometimes our efforts will meet with a resounding thud at best, hostility or dogma at worst. Expect setbacks,…
Poetry and Aging Parents, Part 6
We grant the old a special courage to weather the slings and arrows of aging, but we forget their older brains are rewired for contemplation, a benefit that goes far beyond facilitating life review. This unique capacity of second half…
Poetry and Aging Parents, Part 4
Adult children live in a bittersweet world of loss and gratitude regarding aging parents. Barbara Crooker’s poem All Saints Day captures this emotional mixture as it attends her mother’s leaving…
All Saints Day
By Barbara Crooker
It’s one day past…
Poetry and Aging Parents, Part 3
The loss of an aging parent is not an isolated event. Rather, their passing is part of the thinning social fabric of middle age and beyond. Siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins friends, associates and casual acquaintances all start to take their…
Dearest Son, Dearest Daughter…
I wrote How To Say It To Seniors for adult children of aging parents as well as professionals who work with older adults. In retrospect, that was short sighted. What I failed to appreciate was that older adults were deeply…