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Watching Myself From the Other Side of the Bed
I had a small, scheduled surgery a few months ago. It was my first surgery, ever, in sixty-some years of showing up for my family’s medical dramas but never starring in my own. And what I did not expect, going in, was that the most surprising part of the whole ordeal would be watching my two daughters rise to mom-level patient advocacy. They talked with the doctors and nurses and asked plenty of questions both before and after. One of them, who works in biotech and has spent
Patty Lowell
Sep 63 min read


Galentine's Day: Sixty-something Edition
Report after report tells us that women living in the third-third of life are joyfully embracing the single life . Recent data from Pew...
Patty Lowell
Sep 44 min read


The Magazine I Keep Waiting For
What I miss most, though, isn't just print. It's the magazines that looked past youth-cult fashion and paid attention to women in midlife and beyond. Magazines like Mirabella and More assumed a woman over fifty had style, opinions, and money to spend, and treated her accordingly.
Patty Lowell
Aug 312 min read


At This Age, I've Stopped Cheaping Out on the Things That Matter
At our age, we’ve learned that life is about discernment. We get to choose which things genuinely make life better, and we refuse to spend money, time, or energy anywhere else.
Patty Lowell
Aug 214 min read


Why Being a Regular is One of Life's Greatest Luxuries
When we think about community, we often picture large groups of friends gathering around a dinner table or lifelong relationships that have weathered decades together. While those relationships are precious, it’s important to remember that community is also built through something much smaller and far more accessible: repeated, everyday encounters.
Patty Lowell
Aug 73 min read


I Demoted My Bucket List
Rather than wallow in disappointment about my failure to fulfill a fantasy from 15 years ago, I flipped the paper over and wrote down a list of the best things that have happened during the same decade and a half. My new list was full of things no magazine would bother assigning, like Sunday mornings with a friend at the coffee shop where the baristas know our order.
Patty Lowell
Jul 143 min read


The Case for Having Something to Look Forward To
I've come to understand that there is real, measurable value in anticipation — in the simple act of having something to look forward to
Patty Lowell
Jul 25 min read


Graduation Advice We Were Too Young to Appreciate
There is something delightfully ironic about commencement speeches. At the exact moment people are least interested in sitting still and listening, someone steps up to a podium and delivers a carefully crafted sermon about life, purpose, resilience, and possibility. This year's graduation season has made that irony even more obvious. Several commencement speakers who drifted into advice about artificial intelligence, workplace disruption, or the uncertain future awaiting grad
Patty Lowell
Jun 14 min read


Dance, Shower, Retinol, Bed
At some point in my twenties, 10:00 p.m. was when the night officially began. One recent Saturday I was freshly showered, face serum applied, my favorite ‘90s tunes ringing in my ears, and sliding into bed thinking at 10:00 p.m. thinking …that was one of the most fun nights I’ve had in years. The plot twist? This was a dance party for women in midlife and beyond that starts at 6:30 pm and wraps up in time to get home before the nightly news. The event is called Earlybirds Cl
Patty Lowell
May 214 min read


Boomer, Generation Jones, or Something Else? Why These Labels Don’t Define Women Over 60
Are you a Baby Boomer or part of Generation Jones? For women over 60, generational labels like these only tell part of the story. This humorous, insightful essay explores why identity in later life is less about categories and more about reinvention, style, and living with intention.
Patty Lowell
May 44 min read


Florals? For Spring? Let’s Discuss.
Somewhere, I imagine Miranda Priestly standing in the middle of one of this season’s brightly lit department stores, surveying racks of peonies, roses, ruffles, smocking, and aggressively cheerful trims, deadpanning her signature line: “Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking.” And honestly, she wouldn’t be wrong. With the sequel to The Devil Wears Prada arriving in just days, it feels like the perfect moment to revisit that iconic fashion observation, because this season, the in
Patty Lowell
Apr 234 min read


Her Friends, Their Mothers, Our Circle
Friendship in this season of life does not have to be limited to who we have always known. It can be found in unexpected places. All it requires is a willingness to say yes, to show up, and to recognize that the circle is not closed.
Patty Lowell
Apr 23 min read


Spring Refresh: Reclaim Your Energy, Style, and Social Life
When all of that shiny New Year momentum fades, and it always does around this time of year, I have learned not to panic. I wait for spring.
Patty Lowell
Mar 203 min read


When His Long-Awaited Freedom Meets Your Already-Full Life
Retirement can be a second courtship. There is time now to rediscover each other without the urgency of careers or carpools. There is space for spontaneous road trips and long conversations that are not squeezed between obligations. But there must also be room for separate growth.
Patty Lowell
Mar 114 min read


Growing to Great Lengths
Scroll social media, flip through fashion coverage, or simply pay attention in the real world, and you’ll see it everywhere: silver hair worn long and loose, glossy ponytails swinging with confidence or peeking out from the backs of baseball caps, soft waves framing faces rich with experience, and long hair has become one of its most visible signatures.
Patty Lowell
Mar 54 min read


Stepmother at Sixty: When the Kids Are Grown and So Are You
While becoming a wife again may have been your heart’s desire, becoming someone’s stepmom likely was not. And yet there you are, newly married at 62, 65, maybe 68, and “stepmother” to adults who are 34 and refinancing their mortgage.
Patty Lowell
Feb 264 min read


Lessons from my Sixteen-Year-Old Self: Reclaiming Freedom in our 60s
There’s a quiet but radical idea here: aging doesn’t always require reinvention. Sometimes it calls for reconnection and extracting the very best from every age. It’s about revisiting moments when the world felt wide open and possibility rushed in.
Patty Lowell
Feb 134 min read


It’s Time to Change Your Mind
For many women, the 60s are the decade when we begin to loosen our grip on long-held “musts” and “nevers,” not because we’re confused, but because we’re clearer, and clarity has a way of creating space.
Patty Lowell
Feb 54 min read


Decision Making Fatigue: Clearing Mental Clutter to Reclaim Energy
The new year has a funny way of turning us into very ambitious humans. Suddenly we want to eat better, work out regularly, lower our stress, improve relationships, overhaul our wardrobes, get serious about money, and become a slightly upgraded version of ourselves—ideally by February. All of that sounds inspiring. It’s also a lot for one brain. What we often mistake for laziness or lack of follow-through is actually something much more human: decision overload. Why Making De
Patty Lowell
Jan 234 min read


The Brooch Is Back—and It’s Having a Brilliant Moment
Brooches are back. Discover creative, modern ways to style brooches—from scarves to hats to handbags—using pieces you already own
Patty Lowell
Jan 144 min read
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