By Jim Selman | Bio
Our group of men met for our semi-annual retreat on Vince’s farm in New Jersey. We’ve been meeting twice a year every year since 2000. Next year will be a decade of friends coming together for no other purpose than to support and empower each other in our lives. We’re older and we’ve been through a lot together. What I’ve grown to appreciate is that we’re all very willing, able and open to being vulnerable in sharing our lives, our experiences and our wisdom with
By Jim Selman | Bio
I think one of the saddest things I hear of as I grow older is when real friends become estranged. It isn’t that we can’t have strong disagreements and even periods of disengaging from regular conversations at any age. But when ‘falling outs’ become long-term estrangement, bitter memories, regrets and resentment people we once called friends become burdens or even foes. We pay a heavy price to hold onto whatever stories we tell ourselves to justify our position. Most
By Irene Noble
My mother, my friend, died when she was 91. I miss her still, yet it was eighteen years ago. She was a beautiful, elegant, stylish lady. More than that, she was forgiving, uncomplicated by her total honesty, always willing to learn new ways, new directions even though it might require a reversal of old assumptions.When our family gathers around a Christmas tree,
a dinner table or backyard barbeque, we usually bring in to our
conversation the people who are no longer with us. We laugh at moments
we remember, we cherish the time they were here and, sometimes, we mock
the things they used to say. My mother summed up just about everything
with these words, “That’s the way it is.” I can’t count the times we
have all laughed and said in unison when
By Jim Selman | Bio
I am spending a few days with my bestWe are all more or less in our sixties with one younger and one older. We are all in business or retired and we’ve all succeeded by most standards. Aside from lots of laughter and a few tears, we spend a lot of time listening to each other. The space we create for each other is one of unconditional love and respect, which generally allows us to express ourselves in ways in which we don’t normally have the opportunity. We are never judgmental, and whatever ‘coaching’
I had a lot of fun yesterday and last night. It was so much fun, I
wonder why I don’t have this kind of fun all the time. I am
distinguishing between happy and fun here. I am happy most of the time
and enjoy what I am doing, but fun is somehow different. The day was
spent playing golf with my buddies and then we all went to an Italian
cooking school and spent the evening laughing and eating an incredible
dinner.
But
what we did isn’t the source of ‘why’ it was fun. I’ve
This story was submitted by Cindy La Ferle over at Cindy’s Home Office.
Until
I met Sylva B., I rarely socialized with ‘older people’ outside my
family circle. When I wasn’t working, I hung out with friends my own
age.
At least 40 years my senior, Sylva was the
silver-haired personnel manager who interviewed me for my first job in
reference book publishing in Detroit. I was 25 then, and desperate to
get