A Time and Place to Live Boldly

Why I dress up for coffee and errands after 60, how our dress codes changed, and my ten-minute formula for looking like I have somewhere to be.

What I love most about the Janney moment is that no one is calling it a comeback, because she never left. A comeback requires disappearing, and she simply hasn't. She spent years in small parts before The West Wing made her a household name. Then she won her Oscar for I, Tonya at 58 and has been taking bigger swings ever since. If anything, the industry has finally caught up with what she has been offering all along.

Years ago, when I was deep into mother/career gal mode, there were three never-miss activities that defined Sunday evenings. The first was laundry, with me running loads through the wash and dry cycles and my daughters responsible for sorting, folding and putting away everything in its proper place. I was a stickler about not leaving clean laundry sitting around in a basket all week. The second, born out of frugality, was something I called Trash Can Soup, made from whatever

I make big decisions the way I've always made them: gut instinct, and a stubborn belief that I'll handle whatever may go wrong later. It's worked out fine for this long-time single woman and on-again/off-again entrepreneur. But a few months ago, I had to make a career decision with real consequences for my retirement, and gut instinct didn't feel like enough. For this decision, I wanted something different, a smart, experienced, truth-telling team of women who would help me l

For the past three years, I've absolutely reveled in the first cool, crisp day of fall, the one where I can put on a cozy sweater dress and an equally comfy pair of tights. But the big highlight comes when I pull on my favorite pair of knee-high, black suede boots. They've been with me for a long time, and by that I mean almost 40 years.

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

Report after report tells us that women living in the third-third of life are joyfully embracing the single life . Recent data from Pew...

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.

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.

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.

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.

I've come to understand that there is real, measurable value in anticipation — in the simple act of having something to look forward to

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.