A Cottage by the Sea
  • Home
  • On My Mind
  • Quotes
  • Secrets of an Old Woman
  • A Solitary Traveler
  • Compassionate Reading
  • Comfort food
  • Books
  • Suggested reading
  • Poems
  • About me
  • About me and my blog

Thank you, Judy Kugel

7/12/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
     Judy Kugel, friend of mine, writes a blog entitled “The Something-80 Blog.” For ten years it was called “The Something-70 Blog” but then she had that next decade birthday. Every other day she posts something that creates a record of what is happening and how she is feeling during these later years of her life.
      When I read today’s post I knew I wanted to share it as one of those old woman secrets that we all know. Thank you Judy.
​ttps://www.70-something.com/
 
 
How Healthy Do You Feel?
Posted: 11 Jul 2019 02:47 AM PDT
Next Avenue is a digital platform produced by PBS.  Simply put, it is a website that produces excellent articles aimed at baby boomers. 
A story last week, The Surprising Way Older Adults Describe Their Health reported that most older people feel healthy more often than we think they do, even though about 60% of them have two or more chronic illnesses.
In the 2017 National Health Interview Survey, 82% of adults ages 65 to 74 described their health as excellent. So did 73% of adults 75 or older.
Younger people have different assumptions about their health. They believe that their health should be perfect so anything less is bad.
For baby boomers and those even older, resilience, gratitude and realistic expectations all play roles in how we feel about how we feel. 
Like so many things in life, it’s all about expectations. 
 
You can get on the Next Avenue mailing list here.  https://www.nextavenue.org/newsletter/

0 Comments

No beach reading for me

7/2/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
     Elder Chicks, http://www.elderchicks.com, “a blog for women age 70 or better,” has posed its July topic: July: Beach Time Means Beach Books.  Readers are asked to share what summer reading is like for them. Is it the same/different as the rest of the year? What are you reading?
Here’s my response.
 
    Reading is the same for me not matter what the season, except that in the summer I can sit outside. The term “Beach reading” doesn’t resonate with me; by any definition, I am not a beach reader. I’ve never gone to the beach to read, not do I long for ‘beach’ type books. I read whatever I want—serious, frivolous and everything in between. During the school year when I was teaching I had less/NO time to read for pleasure. Retirement, however,  changes that, and with it came a wider array of books. .
    Currently I have four books going.  For easy pleasure I’m reading the fifth Maggie Hope Mystery, The Queens Accomplice, by Susan Elia Macneal. Then there is The Overstory, by Richard Powers, a combination of fiction and non-fiction that I’m enjoying as I read each section and then sitting with it—not a fast read. Next is Puccini, A Biography, by Howard Greenfelt; my plan is to listen to each opera as I read about it. Finally, I’m going paragraph by paragraph through The Muller Report, albeit, one or two pages a day. 

0 Comments

    Author

       I am a 78 year old white, educated, privileged woman, in excellent health, with a wonderful family. I go to church and travel by myself to Italy and Scotland. That’s my public vita, my public persona. But that’s not all who I am. I have secrets, secrets of an old woman. So let me say some more.
         I’m old. Not in the usual physical ways of a person age 78, but I’m old in years, and that very fact guides the sense of meaning that I feel and experience in my life. Put succinctly, more and more my age is becoming the filter through which I lead my life.
         I’ve had a rich life, with caring parents, a loving husband of 54 years, two wonderful children, and four amazing grandchildren. My teaching career was rewarding; I published six books for teachers describing my experiences as a kindergarten and first grade teacher. When I retired I earned a divinity degree and became the spiritual care counselor for a local hospice.
        I ask myself if now I am really retired. Well, yes and no. Yes, in that I have more free and unscheduled time to satisfy my longing for silence, solitude and simplicity, which I blog about in this blog-- www.acottagebythesea.net, and more time to attend to my spiritual life, which I blog about in www.aprayerdiary.net. I have more time to spend with family and friends, help at church, read for pleasure, write, and travel,. My old woman secret is that I am still searching for meaning and the search is intense and life supporting.

    Archives

    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018

    Categories

    All
    Gratitude
    Reading
    Travel

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.