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Life Lessons

First-person essays on what we’ve learned and discovered after 50. Candid, inspiring, helpful, from the heart.

Toy construction workers toil over a life-sized schedule planner using shovels and pick-axes to move sticky notes.

The Annual Hunt for the Perfect Paper Planner

Many of us still love tracking our schedule in print. Here’s what I’ve discovered has changed in calendar design

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Four people seated at an outdoor table engage in a talking circle

How to Have More Meaningful Conversations

After my mom died, I missed interactions that went beyond small talk

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Amy Brecount White serves her granddaughter a book from a room service tray. There is a cart of books behind her.

Love to Read? Pass It On to Your Grandkids

You don’t need to see them daily to help them build strong reading habits

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Writer Donna Freydkin dines alone at her favorite local restaurant, Pasta Louise, in Brooklyn, New York.

I Was Widowed at 39. I’m Never Dating Again

My friends tell me that at 53, it’s time to make a dating profile. But I’m not looking

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More Life Lessons

ryan seacrest with meredith holt on wheel of fortune

I Was a $92,849 ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Winner at 80

Getting on the show was a triumph. But what happened next was truly a dream come true

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A graphic illustration shows a woman with large hoop earrings leaning backward among various geometric shapes

I Forfeited My Culture for the Sake of Success

I used to leave my heritage at the door. Here’s the journey I took to accepting all of me

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different people looking up into the sky with the new york city skyline all around them

What It Means to Keep Returning to Ground Zero

For 30 years I’ve come back: as a tour guide, downtown resident and 9/11 survivor

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an illustration shows an older adult couple sitting on a bed at a historic new york hotel, staring at a spoon display on their hotel wall. The display is missing two spoons

What a Bad Hotel Room Taught Me About Marriage

The real constant in a marriage isn’t where you stay, but who you come back to

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Dolly Parton smiling in a black and white photo

Dolly Parton Made This Interview Personal

A journalist recalls the star’s wit, kindness and decades of unexpected connection

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A graphic illustration shows an older adult man made of stone in front an orange and purple cloudy sky. The back of his head is cracking off, the pieces turning into stone birds which are flying away

Dementia Made My Cold, Distant Father Huggable

The author of ‘The Silver Linings Playbook’ on how illness changed their relationship

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an illustration shows ken burns speaking to a group of children, with a word bubble that shows a scene from the founding of the united states

Ken Burns’ Lessons for His Grandchildren

The documentarian reflects on the complexity and stubborn hope the U.S. was built on

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an illustration shows an older adult man in a room with his mother. He has his arms on her shoulders as she looks into a mirror and sees her younger self

I Finally Asked My Mother About Her Upbringing

I spent decades respecting her silence, until her cancer opened a door to her past

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Stylized pop-art graphic of a medical syringe reflected in a blue eye

What It’s Really Like to Get Eye Injections

I wouldn’t call it pleasant, but my vision was worsening, so I did it.

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