tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361284692024-03-14T01:19:07.035-04:00Prill Boyle's Defying GravityThink it's too late to make a change? Think again!Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.comBlogger314125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-86944991877160236552011-11-18T10:31:00.001-05:002011-11-18T11:17:00.104-05:00I've Switched to WordPressGood news! I've switched from Blogger to WordPress. Now my blog and website are at the same easy address: prillboyle.com. If you want to continue receiving my weekly postings via email or RSS feed, click here to quickly re-subscribe. I know it's a hassle, but look on the bright side. It's free!Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-23156680048440714822011-10-26T21:15:00.000-04:002011-10-27T00:37:31.914-04:00Test-Drive Your Dream Job
Journalist Larry Portzline, my co-author for DEFYING GRAVITY, TOO, is my guest blogger this week. Note that Mark Peffers is one of the men we interviewed for the book.
Imagine having the opportunity
to "test-drive" your dream job for a couple of days.
Maybe you want to become a
brewmaster like Mark Peffers, or learn how to run a B&B, or find out what
it's like to Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-49426743153398661352011-10-19T21:00:00.004-04:002011-10-20T12:06:08.554-04:00Barbara Traynor
Barbara Traynor, author of Second Career Volunteer: A Passionate & Pennywise Approach to Retirement, spends six months of every
year volunteering at an organization of her choice in exchange for room and
board.
One year she worked at a
small college in Alaska. (See photo, above, of Barbara kayaking with some new friends in her free time.) Another
year Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-71709955402235582342011-10-05T20:30:00.000-04:002011-10-05T23:33:41.267-04:00No Time Like the Present
Reading about Steve Jobs’ death tonight at the age of 56, I
feel a renewed sense of urgency to seize the moment. I’ve already lived a year more than he did. With that in mind, today I’ve chosen to
re-run a post I published on February 10, 2008. When I wrote this, my friend Laurie’s husband Jim had just died of a brain tumor.
A memorial celebration was held yesterday for JimPrill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-18632194927403350142011-09-28T08:00:00.000-04:002011-10-05T23:34:01.020-04:00Finding Purpose: The Five P'sThis blog entry was originally posted on March 19, 2007. I had just returned from Botswana when I wrote it. I recently chatted with Bonnie Orton, the then 70-year old Peace Corps volunteer who hosted me while I was there. She called me from JFK on her way home to Chicago from another trip to Africa. One of these days we plan to go back together.
We are born to dreamPrill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-1161446925199924642011-09-21T19:45:00.000-04:002011-10-05T23:34:08.388-04:00Walking Through Fear
I'm in the middle of a whirlwind of guests, speeches and travel, and too busy to keep up with my regular, weekly blogging. Until my life calms down again, I'm going to be reprising some of my favorite posts from the past. This one is from October 21, 2006. In hindsight, I'm happy to report that I wasn't crazy to try my hand at fiction. Even if my novel still isn't ready Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-10111312258706217682011-09-14T08:00:00.000-04:002011-09-22T21:09:40.144-04:00
Today's guest post is by Tamara Elizabeth, author of the self-help book Fabulously Fifty:
Moving Forward Through a Midlife Transition
In the first 50 years of my fabulous life, I wore many hats in different styles, sizes and colors. All were neatly stored in the hatbox
called motherhood. I have raised a total of seven children and have loved every moment. Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-44418348945779470892011-09-11T16:46:00.000-04:002011-09-22T21:08:28.331-04:00Bearing Witness
Here's a post I wrote on 9/11/08. I can't believe ten years have passed:
On a crystal clear morning eight years ago today, my husband and I were sitting in our car at a beach in Greens Farms, Connecticut, watching the Twin Towers burn. We couldn’t see the flames, but from across Long Island Sound we could see plumes of smoke blackening the sky. Minutes earlier on television we'd watched in Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-79489557089758734832011-09-07T22:08:00.000-04:002011-09-22T21:06:16.009-04:00Successful Aging
It's pretty hard to defy gravity if your body and mind are going down hill, so here's a quick overview of what I've learned over the past decade about successful aging:
In 10
years, 1 out of 5 people will be over 65.
The
stereotype of old people as hard of hearing and stooped over with a cane
is just that—a stereotype.
Being
old is not the same as being sick.Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-75961026959317972252011-08-31T04:00:00.000-04:002011-09-07T22:36:57.670-04:00Keeping Alzheimer's at Bay
Today’s post was written and sent to me by Allison Gamble:
Keeping Alzheimer’s at Bay
As we get older, many of us ask ourselves: Will my hearing diminish? Will I need bifocals? Will my hips and knees hold out? And scariest of all: Will my mind stay sharp?
Interestingly, the authors of a recent study published by
the American Academy of Neurology discoveredPrill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-10897226583059600852011-08-24T09:00:00.000-04:002011-09-07T22:37:43.543-04:00RSVP, Please
Today's post is by Betty Ruth, President of the National Association of Retired Senior Volunteer Program Directors (NARSVPD):
In the two weeks after floods ravaged the Midwest this past June, Larry Lyngstad (above photo, left) of Pierre, South Dakota, and his fellow volunteers with the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) donated 1600 hours sand bagging and
providing other Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-31115230768154236092011-08-17T12:35:00.000-04:002011-09-07T22:38:01.909-04:00Mary Brewster and American Flora
Sixteen years ago, at the age of 40, Mary Brewster took up ballet. She’d taken lessons as a child, but it had been 28 years
since she’d regularly done any rond de jambes or pliés.
Soon, in addition to keeping up with her own lessons, she
began teaching ballet and pointe to other adults at Pirouette, Pilates and More
in Wilton, CT. All the while, she
kept wishing she Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-42464195264107293752011-08-10T17:40:00.007-04:002011-09-07T22:38:16.126-04:0061-Year Old Swimmer Holds Head Up High
Yesterday, in a stretch of sea half-way between Cuba and Key
West, 61-year old marathon swimmer Diana Nyad abandoned a dream.
Ms. Nyad's quest was to complete the 60-hour,
103-mile journey without a shark cage.
For two years she had been in training, swimming 12 hours every other
day and lifting weights in between. Years before, at the age of 29, she had set a Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-89078821021212760582011-08-03T09:23:00.016-04:002011-08-04T11:47:58.913-04:00Leading Questions
Where is your work coming from? Why are you doing it?
What is it you see? These are questions pioneering photographer Jerome Leibling,
who died last week at the age of 87, continually asked his students, one of
whom was documentary filmmaker Ken Burns.
In a 2006 NYT interview, Burns said about Leibling: “You wanted to be like him. You wanted to tell the Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-69286795169053001282011-07-27T08:43:00.012-04:002011-08-10T17:47:15.562-04:00Use It Or Lose ItShow me a group of healthy and vibrant “super seniors,” and
I’ll show you a group of people who regularly exercise. Like Art White, the ninety-nine year old I recently interviewed for my TV show, these
individuals might not use the “e” word to describe what they do to keep moving,
but move they do. Yoga
master Tao Porchon-Lynch (see below) is a perfect example of Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-50981149507109361142011-07-20T15:05:00.109-04:002011-07-28T11:51:52.434-04:00The Force of HabitEven though personality stabilizes by 20 and is virtually solidified by 50, this doesn't mean that all opportunity for growth stops in midlife. No matter what your age, it's still possible to change some of those habits that are holding you back from fulfilling your dreams.
In a new book titled Making Sense of People: Decoding the Mysteries of Personality, leading neuroscientist Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-11033525471317091022011-07-13T08:41:00.002-04:002011-07-13T09:26:23.581-04:00Every Blade of Grass Has Its Angel
Wini Yunker, who joined the Peace Corps at 65 and inspired me to write Defying Gravity, once told me that she couldn’t have done what she did on her own. When I was making plans to fly to Kentucky to interview her, she even insisted that I stay an extra day to meet some of the wonderful people who had helped her on her journey.
More people have helped me than I can count. Every Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-50751123204223084052011-07-06T23:59:00.026-04:002011-07-07T09:01:33.519-04:00Art White: Part 3I've been busy this week creating a new website for the TV show I do (www.ageless-tv.com) and uploading clips to it. Here's one of me interviewing Art White, the 99-year old I've been blogging about the past two weeks. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is priceless. Today I'm meeting with an equally active 99-year old woman. Stay tuned!
Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-60387678722626427522011-06-29T15:20:00.012-04:002011-07-07T09:03:19.604-04:00Art White, 99Art White changed my life last week. How? By replacing my mom as my primary role model for aging.
As loyal readers of this blog know, my mom is now 88. She still lives alone, still walks every day, still reads voraciously (she just finished Ann Patchett’s newest book State of Wonder), still laughs at the slightest provocation and still has a killer wink that melts me every time Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-23406731732222284252011-06-22T10:04:00.004-04:002011-07-05T09:30:08.705-04:00Questions for a 99-Year OldThis past Monday I had a remarkable guest on my TV show. His name is Art White, and he's turning 99 this coming Friday. Somehow Art has managed to outlive the vast majority of his peers and stay astonishingly active. Since retiring at age 95 from his third career, he still bowls twice a week, does Tai Chi once a week, plays bridge four times a week, eats anything he wants and Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-54829319630357112842011-06-15T08:00:00.031-04:002011-07-05T09:30:51.711-04:00Harry Bernstein & Me
Having put enough distance between myself and the feedback I received on the latest draft of my novel to pick up my pen again, I'm once more sitting at my favorite desk in the Thousand Islands, writing away.
Even if the book never makes it to the marketplace, I'm thankful that persistence comes so naturally to me. Whether I learned it from my parents or it's simply a manifestation of my innate Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-2800125318409691892011-06-08T00:16:00.002-04:002011-07-05T09:31:33.852-04:00The Longevity Paradox
I'm worried about aging. There, I said it. I might be the Defying-Gravity gal, but I'm as afraid as the next person of outliving my money, my loved ones and perhaps even my usefulness.
Keep in mind that I'm luckier than most--a member of an all-too-exclusive group of people who have investments, health insurance and an extensive, multigenerational support network. An alarmingPrill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-57746647912536553102011-06-01T17:41:00.012-04:002011-06-22T10:26:18.221-04:00See a Problem, Summon a LifeFollow your dreams or be practical?—that’s the question WNYC host Brian Lehrer (photo below) posed on-air yesterday to the Class of 2011.
This either/or approach works great for talk radio, but not so well for everyday life. Who says you can't have a paying job and pursue a passion on the side, that being practical means your dreams must be deferred?
Perhaps a better question would Prill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-67879276262016965272011-05-25T08:00:00.052-04:002011-06-02T13:23:15.288-04:00Two Recommendations1) Martin Seligman's new book Flourish.
Ever since the Framers of the Constitution claimed that the pursuit of happiness is an inalienable right, Americans have been obsessed with feeling good. At some universities, the study of happiness has even become an academic discipline. Seligman, the father of positive psychology, was at the helm of this movement.
Now he's donePrill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36128469.post-38256935088733339362011-05-18T08:00:00.261-04:002011-07-05T09:32:23.615-04:00Happy Birthday to Me!
Today I turn fifty-seven. A lot of people my age aren’t that keen on getting older, but I’m jazzed about my birthday coming around again. I'm still breathing! Other than experiencing some annoying hot flashes and an increasing number of arthritic joints, I’m happier now than I can remember ever having been. Of course, my mind these days is like a sieve, and thePrill Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586202626442746356noreply@blogger.com6