by Barry Phegan | Feb 29, 2020 | Aging, Living Life, Social comment, Uncategorized
Loneliness is a national epidemic and it’s killing us. Social isolation is more lethal than smoking 15 cigarettes a day. It increases inflammation, heart disease, dementia, and death rates. It’s linked to our opioid epidemic and soaring suicide rates. Despite...
by Barry Phegan | Feb 12, 2020 | Aging, Living Life, Social comment
A friend loaned me her copy of Gratitude (Knopf, 2019) by Oliver Sacks. Its spare 40 pages hold four beautiful little essays, each a memory or reflection written by Sacks in the closing years and months of his life. Though each essay yields many...
by Barry Phegan | Jan 29, 2020 | Aging
How I’m Exploring Being Older “Without structure, there is chaos.” — Anonymous My wife died from dementia in 2012. My experience as her caregiver was a million-dollar experience that I wouldn’t take $1 million to repeat. Meaning that, while the experience was...
by Barry Phegan | Jan 14, 2020 | Aging, Living Life
When their time comes, some people are ready to take that last step. I wonder how it will be for me. Will I be ready? Last month I attended a memorial service for a recently departed friend. She’d been ill for some time, then suddenly took a steep dive....
by Barry Phegan | Dec 11, 2019 | Aging, Living Life
I’m pondering a new way to experience my days — paying more attention. This is how its been going. This morning, after a full and fulfilling Thanksgiving week with my family, I drove my daughter and her two children to the San Francisco Airport. Returning...
by Barry Phegan | Nov 19, 2019 | Aging, Living Life
This month I turn 80. Friends ask, “How does it feel?” I reply, “It’s a bit scary, but I’m not sure why.” That got me thinking. At 80 I must be in that “old” group, though I can’t say I feel much different than I did at 79 (or 69). No, I don’t feel old —...
