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We live with the underlying threat of personal and global tragedy, the shock waves caused by the election, terrorism, poverty, unemployment, superbugs that don’t react to current antibiotics, global warming, and the high cost of everything. Even the simplest acts in life are now potentially dangerous--drinking tap water, eating fresh greens, going on an airplane, riding a train, opening the mail, heading to work, or our kids and grandkids going off to school.  And personally, we worry about everything, from the children to aging parents, personal finance, health, and more With all these concerns filling the daily fabric of our...

I have come home again, moving back to the community where I grew up.  In the early 1950s, our family moved to Clayton, MO, then the sleepy seat of St. Louis County government with a small-town feel. It was the idyllic family community. There was the postcard loveliness of Old Town with its charming frame homes near the downtown. Clayton streets were lined with grand turn-of-the-century homes and mansions, small mid-century homes and apartment buildings, retail stores, and a few low-rise office buildings. There were a few middle-class neighborhoods such as ours of one-story brick ranch houses with big picture...

What's it like to live in a small yet sophisticated farm community of 7,000 after decades of living in big cities and upscale suburbs?  Life certainly is simpler when the main "downtown" consists of two major streets and one stoplight, and the busiest gathering spots are a coffee-bread store, public library, and the oldest inn in America. The biggest events in town are an annual Dutchess County Fair, established more than 160 years ago and now filled with rides, farm animals, and food stands, and the newer but equally busy Sheep & Wool festival, which brings scores of knitters to...

From the first frequent query of “How are you?” to the more intimate, “Do you have good chemistry and are you sleeping together?” we’ve found in our single status after 50, nothing seems off-limits. Whether it’s illness—“Is he in pain and suffering?” to financial, “How are you managing and was your settlement good enough?” the questions never seem to stop—like rapid-fire bullets in a war zone. And we’re the target.  We love the concern of acquaintances, good friends, and family…sometimes, depending on our mood, the question asked, tone, and our relationship to the interrogator. However, we wonder if the sharing...

Don’t sweat it, Meg, I think to myself. So you lost your phone. Again. You’ll find it.  Call it. I dial. No ring. I panic. OMG, I turned the ringer off at dinner.  I console myself thinking: I’ll find it but no problem, my information is in the cloud--whatever that means. I can always buy a new phone. Ugh! The expense. And I don’t like change.    I’m frantic. I have to find it. It’s too late to call the restaurant where I dined in case it fell out of my purse.  In the meantime…  I start the hunt.  Step...