I Love Your Term the Fertile Void…
Suzanne Braun Levine has been a hero of mine since age 16, when I was a charter subscriber to Ms. Magazine, where she was the first editor. Just as Ms. had many things to teach me about myself as a woman and a feminist, so Levine decades later continues to teach women about themselves, through her writing (in books like Inventing the Rest of Our Lives: Women in Second Adulthood and her contributions to MORE Magazine) and speaking. I was privileged to talk …

 
A STORY FROM THE ‘FERTILE VOID’

 
The hallmark of the beginning of Second Adulthood is a necessary but disturbing descent into what I call the Fertile Void. Like the onset of menopause, this profound upheaval has nothing to do with chronological age. It may coincide with the loss of biological fertility and it may take as long or longer than a pregnancy, the similarities end there. The Fertile Void is a place of confusion in which a midlife woman wanders without a map until she finds her new self.
The good …

POEMS OF PONDS, PINEWOODS, PROVINCETOWN AND LIFE
 
The Journey
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began…
 

I cited the Mary Oliver poem “The Journey” at the beginning of the Fertile Void chapter in Inventing the Rest of our Lives because it spoke so evocatively about the trepidation we feel as we enter unknown territory. The lines “and there was a new voice/ which you slowly/ recognized as your own” in particular resonate with so many women in transition.
This week as I listened to her voice on “Provincetown: …

“THE HOUSE OF SPIRITS” – ISABEL ALLENDE’S REMARKABLE WOMEN- BY LIANA SIDERI

As I was contemplating “Fifty is the New Fifty,” I kept thinking of the immense resilience characteristic of the female nature, the concept of which you illustrate so beautifully. And though most of us have been taught to be in control of the many roles we shuffle daily (and of those we were never called to assume but we have), eventually we come to a point where we need to reevaluate the meaning of and the reasons for …

LOVE, SEX, INTIMACY…
A New Novel from Jane Adams
A year or so ago, I read the manuscript of a novel about a woman like us – turning 60, facing career challenges, dealing with uncooperative children, redefining love- AND sex – and getting to know her authentic self. Charlotte “Sugar” Kane is a great character and very, very funny in that wry way we enjoy in our friends.
The only problem was that the author, my friend Jane Adams, couldn’t find a publisher interested in fiction about midlife women, so she finally …

My Conversation with Sister Marie Pappas on Sirius Satellite Radio
Yes, I still love the radio. But, I had almost forgotten what a pleasure it is to have an extended conversation with an interesting and “interested” interviewer until this recent book promotion tour. I had the opportunity to talk to women and men radio hosts across the country from my home – NO make-up needed! Pajamas optional!
One of the interviews was from a studio on satellite radio. Sister Marie Pappas is on Sirius Satellite Radio along with Martha Stewart, Oprah …

We’re Celebrating…Join Us!

With the launch of this website we are celebrating the new home for Women in Second Adulthood along with the publication of my new book: FIFTY IS THE NEW FIFTY: 10 LIFE LESSONS FOR WOMEN IN SECOND ADULTHOOD. In my books, I have collected anecdotes, insights, and wisdom from women at a new frontier of self-discovery; their stories, along with front-line scientific research and understanding from those professionals who are monitoring our journey, offer practical guidelines for all of us. On this website we can do the …

We Can Only Learn from Each Other
When the first copy of my new book FIFTY IS THE NEW FIFTY arrived from my publisher, my emotions were mixed. On the one hand the book embodies the long-awaited launch of my ideas into the public conversation. On the other hand, it makes me vulnerable to the public’s response. Curiously, though, I feel somewhat less vulnerable this time out than when INVENTING THE REST OF OUR LIVES was published several years ago.
This is due in part to the fact that I was …

You’re Not Who You Were, Only Older – My “first post” from December, 2005
My first step into Second Adulthood was backward off a ninety-foot cliff. On impulse, I had signed up for an Outward Bound program and found myself poised in full rappelling gear—harness, helmet, and guide rope—to walk down the face of what could just as well have been my twelve-story apartment building. The terror was pure. I was only mildly distracted by the reassuring words of our leader: “Fear is the appropriate response here. After all, evolution doesn’t …

“Tradition! Tradition!” sings Tevya in the rousing testimonial to rites of passage from “Fidler on the Roof.” Traditions mark transitions. They create community around significant life experiences. And force us to pause and take stock. Indeed, many of us have tried to initiate new traditions to commemorate neglected but major passages – such as a fiftieth birthday or a divorce.
I am thinking about all this because there are two big transitions coming up in my family’s life. One is well-marked milestone: My daughter is graduating from college this month, amid …