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  “Respect yourself,” as the song goes by the American R&B/gospel group, The Staple Singers, and protect yourself. We protect ourselves as best as we can as we age because we are determined to stay mentally and physically healthy for as long as possible. And if we’re living alone, there are special precautions that we try to take.   When young, we had a sense of impatience, adventure, excitability and a lack of perspective and often the circumstances that only the young possess—a laissez faire lifestyle. Fast forward to today. Those of us of a certain age have had to...

You buy an expensive piece of jewelry or designer purse, and the expectation is that it’s authentic--whatever the name brand is. No one likes to be ripped off, especially when you pay top dollar. You can check its provenance to make sure it’s the real deal. At least you can research and look it up to be certain your purchase is what the seller says it is. Most who’ve visited New York City have seen the copies sold on the street and buy them knowing they’re fakes. Many collectors and experts have been duped by art forgeries. Some are incredibly...

Most of us are out and about these days, eating more in restaurants, getting on planes and trains and even hugging and kissing friends and family at events. However, after spending too much time in our homes during the pandemic, have our conversation chops become rusty and need a good oiling?  We get together with people we haven’t been around in ages and fumble and fidget about what we should say. We try to remember to ask about the other person and avoid certain hot-button topics. Before Barbara went to a wedding recently, her usually affable beau admitted to her,...

You make a friend. That’s the first step. Pat yourself on the back. Although we’ve written about friendship in past blogs and touted some of the best books on the topic, the focus has been more on how to make new friends, even at an older age.  But how do you cultivate those friendships to keep them healthy and ongoing, sometimes despite hurdles?    We call this endeavor, The Friendship Bond. It’s similar to our Smile Project, which apparently put a smile on the faces of many and generated several comments on the blog. https://lifelessonsat50plus.com/blogs/news/when-you-re-smiling-the-whole-world-smiles-with-you-maybe Since you may be smiling at more people on...

   We all have our good and bad days. Very few things in our lives today are simple. Some struggles are terrible and out of our control—the national debt, mass shootings, hate crimes, gerrymandering, horrific illnesses, religious prejudice and so on. But many of the little things are not so bad. We often struggle with those daily, however—a bad hair day, allergies, a friend too busy to talk. Our purpose in this blog isn’t to whine, although some may think we are. We’ve simply reached an age when more things are happening that give us pause and trouble us. We...