Excerpt from Daily Cures, Wisdom for Healthy Aging by Connie Mason Michaelis Flannery O’Connor famously said, “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” When I read something that I’ve written for the paper. I’m amazed that I wrote it. I ask myself, “How did I ever come up with that?” I am continually writing myself notes with a quote or an idea I come across, anticipating that an article will emerge. I have a collection of napkins or scraps of paper with ideas. So...

Excerpt from Daily Cures, Wisdom for Healthy Aging by Connie Mason Michaelis Did you know that the cells you have in your body today, approximately 38 trillion, are not the ones you were born with? About a century ago, scientists discovered that some of our brain cells formed during fetal development persist throughout life, but most cells have a relatively short lifespan. Some cells are replaced every few days, and others may last a few years. For example, gut lining cells are about five...

I have continued to read and contemplate the concept of the ‘second half of life.’ I frequently go back to Richard Rohr’s book Falling Upward, Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, as well as Chip Conley’s book, Wisdom @ Work; The Making of a Modern Elder. The second half is a bit of a misnomer since I’m soon to be 78! Better late than never, right? The theme, in a nutshell, is that we spend the first half of our lives accumulating, striving, climbing, and expanding. Then, without...