Some Enchanted Evening: The Story of a Midlife Blind Date

(This is an excerpt from Love, Loss and Moving On, a memoir by Lorie Kleiner Eckert, about life post-divorce, which she discovers includes both challenges and opportunities.) Going on this date is either a very romantic or an entirely insane thing to d… Continue reading

10 Ways to Be a Rebel After 80

Because I have a tattoo dotting each bicep, and because I frequently flavor my dialogue with an epithet that starts with an “f” and ends in “k,” folks have labeled me a rebel (or another, more profane word).  And as a 4’9″, 80 1/2-year old woman with h… Continue reading

Best National Parks for Spotting Wildlife

(Editor’s Note: This story is part of a partnership between Next Avenue and Nature: American Spring LIVE. Visit PBS.org for previously broadcast episodes.) One of the most memorable parts of visiting a national park is witnessing the wildlife, whether … Continue reading

Planting Coral Bells for Mom

After 23 years of marriage, I was finished. For the last nine of those years, I’d owned a house with a garden in East Tennessee where I grew herbs, perennials, wildflowers and vegetables. I gathered herbal bouquets and dried flowers. I was a member of … Continue reading

Love for Cats Connects Mother and Daughter

Why is it, no matter how old we are, there’s a part of us which continues to seek our parent’s approval? My mother never was the kind of parent who believed that everything her child did was extraordinary or brilliant. A couple of years ago, I wrote a … Continue reading

The Me2/Orchestra Removes Stigmas Surrounding Mental Illness

PART OF THE VITALITY ARTS SPECIAL REPORT When Ronald Braunstein takes center stage to conduct his orchestra, there’s no sign of his bipolar disorder. He’s self-assured and happy. It wasn’t always that way for the 63-year-old. After graduating from Jull… Continue reading

Grammar Check: Q & A With Author Benjamin Dreyer

In fact, Benjamin Dreyer would really prefer that I open this article quite differently. The longtime copy chief at Random House has made a career of helping authors like  E.L. Doctorow, Frank Rich and Elizabeth Strout replace such “wan intensifiers” a… Continue reading

Downshifting From a Life in Overdrive

Do you think that when we slow down, it’s because we’re aging or because the nature of retired life demands less of us? I ask because, as I near 64, I look with a mix of wonder and bewilderment at the politicians, judges and entertainers who are more t… Continue reading

Meetups: Share Your Passions and Have Fun

Are you by any chance an African-American widower living in Des Moines who loves gourmet cooking and pickleball? Or a Seattle barista, cancer survivor and gaming fanatic? Perhaps a Denver cannabis enthusiast, heli-skier and telenovela fan? Then there’s… Continue reading

Peggy Rowe Tells Stories About Her Mother

Mother. Grandmother. Realtor. Baltimore Orioles groupie. These are just four of the roles that the late Thelma Knobel played in the Rowe family of Baltimore. Her daughter, Peggy, recently published a memoir— About My Mother: True Stories of a Horse-Cra… Continue reading