By Ruth Wooden

President, Public Agenda & Chair of the Board, Civic Ventures
There’s a new chapter required in The Etiquette Handbook:  “What to say to someone who is retiring.”
I can’t get over some of the things people have said to me after a routine announcement that I plan to retire as President of a NYC-based nonprofit later this year.  By the time I retire, I will be 64 and will have served more than seven years in this position after a working career of more than …

She Writes™ – A Room of Her Own Just Got Bigger
To celebrate the recent release of the paperback edition of “Fifty Is the New Fifty,” I was interviewed this week for She Writes.com {have this link to Suzanne Interview} by Pamela Redmond Satran–author of the bestselling book “How Not To Act Old,” creator of the online serialized novel “Ho Springs,” and the developer of “nameberry.com”– for She Writes.com, the leading online destination for women writers.
She Writes™ is a lively community of women writers – 8,000 strong and growing. …

Thank You Suzanne!
Dear Suzanne:
I just finished reading “Fifty Is the New Fifty” over the weekend. After the first chapter, I put my “to do list” aside to make time to go through it all by Sunday night. I could not believe how everything spoke to me and my experiences so directly. My view of many things is now drastically changed.

This morning, I literally feel like hugging all the wonderful middle-aged women I am coming across – I now see how we are so deeply connected.
What an incredible feeling to read …

By Karin Lippert
Toronto, Canada
April 22, 2010

Today, it is 25 years since my mother, Wilhelmine “Mimi” Lippert died of inflammatory breast cancer at age 65. It was a beautiful morning, just like today!
We had spent three days with her while she was lying in a coma in our living room as family and friends came to say farewell. She was leaving us and we were encouraging her to let go. She had stayed through her wedding anniversary on April 20th and that of my brother and sister-in-law’s on April 21st. It …

Toxic Relationships Can Make Us Sick
Saying NO Can Save Your Life!
The Shock of Discovery…
For ‘Anne’, age fifty-one, it began with a misdirected email on her computer…and the shock of discovery in a relationship that seemed fine.
I found out through an e-mail on my laptop that he had picked up a woman–or she had picked him up–it was just one of those whacko things: This was a girl that was 29 years old from Nebraska, and in forty-eight hours she’s e-mailing him that she can’t live without him–she’s married, …

Be sure to watch her YouTube Video!
An early Mother’s Day Gift!

Dear Suzanne,
I’m half-way through your terrific book, and couldn’t wait to write you; I’m underlining on every page, and have just ordered two more copies, gift-wrapped, for friends turning fifty.
A few months ago, my own book, The Gift of an Ordinary Day: A Mother’s Memoir, was published by Grand Central. I didn’t know it till this morning, when I began reading yours, that what I’d actually written was missive from deep within The Fertile Void. There were many …

Civic Ventures and Encore.org in the News – Again!
Photo Credit: Angela Jimenez for The New York Times
Ever since the June, 2009 White House hosted an event salute to social innovators who are in their Encore Careers, Civic Ventures www.civicventures.org and Encore.org have been in the news.
On March 3, 2010 The New York Times (by Elizabeth Pope) reported on “Matching Life Experience With New Careers:”
“HEALTH navigator? Conflict coach? Pollution mitigation outreach worker? These emerging jobs aren’t household terms yet, but they are a natural fit for older people looking for …

“A Circle of Trust Reader’s Guide”

One of the fun things authors get to do for the paperback edition of their book is work with the publisher on a Reader’s Guide for Book Clubs. The publication date for “Fifty is the New Fifty: 10 Life Lessons for Women in Second Adulthood” is March 30th.
In advance of the publication, we’re posting the Plume Edition Reader’s Guide here. Many women have told me the book inspired numerous conversations with their sisters, mothers and friends. I hope the guide leads to even more …

MEMO TO MYSELF
I’ve been advised to write an upbeat end-of-year note – to reinforce the message of my writing, which is that women over fifty are feeling upbeat about themselves and their prospects. And that certainly applies to me. My kids and friends are good; my husband has opened the art gallery of his dreams; and my mother is drifting off peacefully (so far). I have reconnected with old friends, which is an amazing gift; my longtime friends continue to nourish me and one another (one had major back surgery, …

Women in Second Adulthood Are Doing Just Fine, Thank You.
In a country that gorges on “happy meals” and concludes correspondence with a “smiley face,” it is safe to suggest that happiness has been devalued as a meaningful state of mind. Asking about it is like asking “How are you?” Fine.  Nevertheless Marcus Buckingham, who describes himself as “leading expert in personal strengths and best-selling author,” decided to assemble all known happiness surveys (On a scale of 1 to 3, how happy are you?) and report on Huffington Post that his …