print		email

Message from Dr. D

 

As with others in my generation, upon turning fifty, I expected to wake up out of shape, grey, perhaps a bit sluggish and less interested in work.  To my surprise, I found that I was still full of life - albeit needing a little more sleep and suffering from a few more aches and pains.  In my fifties, my focus changed and my creativity began to flower.  Then came sixty, and with it, a new kind of zest.  I had experienced my share of good times and hard times.  I gained a richer sense of life patterns and a larger life picture slowly emerged.

My own reFIREment began and I started to write and lecture.  Then FiftyAndFurthermore.com put out the welcome mat.  I brought together a team of experts and created an ezine and a website for those in the second half of life, and for those who believe that the years ahead, can be the best ones yet.  We can’t recapture youth; let’s embrace who we have become: sages. Sages are not born; they are made. 

As a psychologist, I have almost four decades of experience listening to people's stories, journeying with my clients through job changes, marriages, divorces, illnesses, births, and deaths. Those 50+ in my office were interested in health, looking good, pros and cons of cosmetic surgery, fashion, keeping good relationships alive, sex, dating, money, kids, aging parents, blended families, new careers, upsizing, downsizing, travel and their souls.  I reasoned that if we were dealing with these issues, then so were others in our generation beyond our office walls. 

Let’s get real, “aging gracefully” is garbage.  Realistically, it is not easy to keep up with doctor appointments, floss twice a day, exercise, tend to relationships, and be a mentor for the next generation.  We want to age with the same zest we’ve always had.  Yet the reality is a tangled web of divorces, children, stepchildren, and parents who need caring for. 

Relationships and sex change.  Hormone driven sexuality as we once knew it wanes, but opportunity for sensuality gains.  We have room for deeper spirituality. We can take the time to define our authentic self, and be comfortable in our own skin, albeit with a few hard-earned wrinkles.  Saging can be messy, fun, complex and sometimes hard.  But is it worth it?  Absolutely.  If we apply what we’ve gained from our life experiences, then we will all have the opportunity to make these years ahead the best ones yet.  Together, we can explore what it truly means to be FiftyAndFurthermore.

  
Life is not meant to live alone - Reach out!

Dr. Dorree Lynn