Creativity Can Empower Your Second Half of Life...

There are many ways to uncover and develop your creativity. The great thing is … it can help all aspects of your life. Every day we hear of amazing creative people who are active well into their seventies and eighties. One of the most famous was Grandma Moses (1860-1961), an American folk artist, who started her art career when she was 79 and continued well into her 90’s. People view her as remarkable because she started her art career so late in life. She is not unusual in terms of people who continue to their creative endeavors to the very end. George Burns (1896-1996), the American actor and author so many loved, started out in the days of vaudeville and acted well into his 80’s. Dame Agatha Christie (1890-1976), the detective novelist, wrote up until her death at age 86, her books selling over 100 million copies. In your own life, you probably have friends who are always trying some new creative endeavor, so it’s not just the famous who nurture this aspect of life. Many changes occur as we enter the older years, and they are often factors that can release aspects of creativity that have lain dormant. When families have been raised there is often more time to pursue creative activities. At some point, careers come to an end, and a person can pursue creative hobbies, or even start an encore (encore.org) career that enables them to use their creative talents. The brain is different in the later years, and many of the ways are amazing and wondrous. It is conceivably part of our evolution as mankind. So many are living to be so much older, not only in the United States, but all over the world....

How to Visit Your Aging Parent the Right Way...

Taking a different approach can make things better for both of you Katherine Arnup, a retired professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and now life coach, got an education in caregiving when her sister and parents got sick. She later became a hospice volunteer. She drew on those experiences for her latest book, I Don’t Have Time for This!: A Compassionate Guide to Caring for Your Aging Parents and Yourself. Arnup writes about the importance of being “being present” when you visit an aging parent. The following is excerpted from one of the book’s chapters. Settle In, Look Around When you arrive to visit your parents, take the time to get settled. It might help to take a few deep intentional breaths before you open the door to their house or apartment. Once inside, resist the urge to start blathering on and on just to fill the void, or to cover up your discomfort or nervousness. Listen. Observe. How does the house or apartment look? What changes do you notice since your last visit? Is your father wearing clothes with obvious stains? Are there a week’s worth of papers stacked up beside his chair? What might this mean? Is it typical? Might it be a hazard? Not Your House Because of our discomfort, we often fall into the habit of cleaning up, putting things “back in their place,” or throwing things out that we consider to be garbage or recycling. These actions are likely to cause unnecessary frustration and confusion for your parents. They know where everything is now, and you’re only disrupting that order. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that it’s their house, not yours. I’m not suggesting you ignore signs of distress or mental confusion. But...

Cards That Offer Better Words for a Serious Illness...

Their cancer-survivor maker knows the pain of kind but hurtful sentiments If you have ever had cancer or another serious illness, you can probably make a long list of unhelpful things that friends, family and well-meaning acquaintances have said to you. “Everything happens for a reason.” “I read about this miraculous new treatment on the Internet!” “Oh, I knew someone who had that same thing and they died.” Emily McDowell, a cancer survivor, has heard them all. In response, the Los Angeles graphic designer came up with a set of eight “Empathy Cards” to be used when traditional “get well” cards just don’t work. She launched them this week. Another set is due out in December, she told NPR’s Ina Jaffe in an interview. A Terrifying Diagnosis McDowell learned 15 years ago, at age 24, that she had Stage 3 Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. “The most difficult part of my illness wasn’t losing my hair, or being erroneously called ‘sir’ by Starbucks baristas, or sickness from chemo,” she said on her company’s website. “It was the loneliness and isolation I felt when many of my close friends and family members disappeared because they didn’t know what to say, or said the absolute wrong thing without realizing it.” Among the potentially offensive comments: referring to cancer as “a journey.” “With time and distance, some people do come tothat conclusion on their own that this … feels like a journey,” McDowell told NPR. “But a lot of people really feel like ‘If this is a journey, I’d like my ticket refunded,’ or ‘This is a journey to hell and back.’ ” Coming Up Empty To be fair, it is hard to know what to say. When we...