Insomnia. Who doesn't suffer from it occasionally? It is the frustrating inability to get to sleep, stay asleep, or go back to sleep after waking up too early. Many times, it’s caused by stress or anxiety, but not always. It would be safe for me to say that every single post-menopausal woman I know (okay, maybe not every one) wrestles with insomnia, and stress or anxiety doesn’t play into it. Not every night, maybe not every week, but often enough to have it dictate what they’re preparing for Continue Reading

Perfect conditions It was time for the great adventure, Kayaking 101. The temperature was around 80, clear blue sky, the slightest of a breeze. As soon as Kathy and I saw our guide, we simultaneously let out a whew. Johnny had some size, and he’d be able to save us. Further, he had the calmest, friendliest disposition you could want when your anxiety is creeping past the take three deep breaths stage. These were the perfect conditions for our first kayaking experience. After the brief Continue Reading

Scenario: Two women, 70 and 67, decide they want to try kayaking for the first time. They sign up for a two-hour Sunset Kayak Tour on Lake Couer d’Alene, with a local adventure team in Couer d’Alene (CDA), Idaho. They negotiate a private tour, knowing they’ll never last two hours. CDA is located 30 miles east of Spokane, Washington, 165 miles northwest of Missoula, Montana and 95 miles south of the Canadian border. The temperature of the lake is cold.   Person A Athletic and will be Continue Reading

If you were to list the milestones of this journey called aging, what would you include? Do you remember when they started? My list would look like this: Gray hair in my thirties. Reading glasses in my forties. A colonoscopy in my fifties. Recently, I added something new to the list that really threw me for a jolt. I’d been ignoring a nagging pain in my hip since last summer. It had gotten progressively worse, and I finally relented and made a doctor’s appointment. As the Continue Reading