I am almost twice the age of Jack Gilbert in his poem, “It is Difficult to Speak of the Night,” where he bemoans the onset of middle age, yet finds unexpected new growth as well. …

My first story was published in my elementary school creative writing anthology. As I remember, it was a story of a snail in my mother’s garden. I don’t remember the plot, but I do remember that my parents looked quizzically at me after reading it, wondering why I wrote such…

I love to eat! Especially pasta. Especially with cheese. So it will be no surprise that after almost 80 years, I still turn to mac and cheese when I’m feeling sad or happy, lonely or full of gratitude for my friends and family, fat or less so. When I’m anxious…

Because I grew up in a fancy suburb of New York City, I didn’t realize my privilege at the time. Many more families and friends had more money, bigger houses and more elaborate vacations than my family did. Yet, looking back I was a very privileged kid. …

Larry and I were together from 1987 to 1995. We were married in 1989 at Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis by Larry’s best friend, a Methodist minister, and my associate pastor at Plymouth, Lauren, a young woman I admired. When the wedding floral arrangements hadn’t arrived at the church at…

My maternal grandmother saved me from extinction when I was a teenager. She was a refuge of unconditional love during my dad’s worst drinking and my mom’s anger at almost everything. But she was also a mystery. Handsome instead of beautiful, regal in bearing, a cut-throat bridge player. The mystery…

I was reading an opinion piece in the New York Times Science section on Awe, a specialty of Dacher Keltner’s. He is director of the Greater Good Science Center at UCBerkeley. The center studies positive emotions and awe is Keltner’s latest baby. Roughly defined, awe is the feeling of reverence…

Each year in the United States, adults aged 50 and older make more than 40 million visits to the emergency room. Older adults often have complicated and multiple conditions and so their care requires both coordination between multiple healthcare providers, and more follow up services. When deciding where to go…

Dr. Becca Levy has written a book titled The Age Code which is sort of about age discrimination, and sort of about positivity and mostly about her research finding that more positive people live longer. I think we already know this from other research into happiness and positivity. …