It was not what I expected — In 2001, I met a man that my heart instantly recognized as the man I had been looking for my whole life. I was interviewing him for an article I was writing. He was the trails manager at a prestigious public garden. When I walked down the path to his…

Our stories have the power to create our life. Make sure you are creating a good one. — Each of us is here to live our wildly authentic and deeply meaningful lives. And we are meant to do this at every decade of our lives. — Maria Shriver In our culture, aging is not sexy. We are taught to fear it, and as such, we spend a lot…

Letting go of my unrealistic expectations for myself — Two of our seven grandchildren visited recently. They are four and two. They are delightful, but I must admit, they are exhausting. And I spent a good bit of their visit feeling like a failure as a grandmother. This was their first visit to our new house. They were so…

I don’t want to regret buying a house with stairs — When my husband and I started looking for a new home, one of the criteria was that we would not buy a home with stairs. We decided we wanted a house we could age comfortably in, and that meant one-level living. What is it they say about best-laid plans? We…

This is where I was meant to be all along — My search for “home” has been a long one. And even though I’ve had the privilege of living in some wonderful houses, on some beautiful properties, none of them ever reached the height of feeling like a true home. They were all stops along the road to home, not HOME. …

We bought it anyway — We just bought the house of our dreams. The one in the woods on the side of a mountain with a creek babbling beside the house. The one in a quiet neighborhood, with a speed limit of 15 mph. …

The question is: Is it worth it? — Don’t be fooled. Nothing makes moving easier. The last time my husband and I moved we looked at each other and said, almost simultaneously, “Let’s never do this again!” Yet, here we are, 10 years later, moving. Again. There are many good reasons why we chose to make this move…

It’s hard to “be here now” when I’m trying hard to get somewhere else — Final Days I walked out onto the front porch before dawn, coffee in hand. As I settled into my chair to await the dawn chorus I realized it was so silent I could hear the leaves breathing. This is a rare occurrence here, where there is usually the hum of interstate traffic…

I think she knew what I would be doing today — Today is the one-year anniversary of the death of my beautiful mother. I never thought a lot about where I would be in my life on this day, but I think Mama knew. She had a way of knowing things that were beyond human understanding. She found an anchor on…