Do you wish you could preserve your footprints on this planet by saving your stories? Do you often wish you knew more about a relative who has passed away? How many times have you heard someone say, “There are so many questions I should have asked”?

Are there old photos in your parents’ albums of people you don’t know? What would you like future generations to remember about you?

There are many creative ways to chronicle the events in our lives, without taking on the daunting task of writing an autobiography.

Our Stories Are a Roadmap of Our Lives

When we look back from our perch in the golden years, we may find that life has been both ordinary and extraordinary, depending on the moment du jour. And like so many others, we become more curious about family members who came before us.

That stuff didn’t seem to matter when we were younger, as we were much too busy with family and career, etc. But as life slows down and we become more thoughtful, we start looking back to see how we got here.

We may begin to wonder if someone in the future will be interested in what life was like during our lifetime. Could a few written stories or mementos left behind keep us close to our children and grandchildren?

Might it give them a sense of belonging? Is it possible that a few small bits of ourselves could serve as a guidepost, to help them face life’s challenges?

Dusting Off the Cobwebs

When I look back on the past 75 years of my life, fleeting and somewhat disjointed images play across my memory tracks like a movie. Some images are vivid and well connected, while others flash in and out of focus – like trying to remember a dream.

I feel the clock ticking more loudly every day, as a reminder for me to capture my stories before they disappear. I must really dig deep through years of accumulated dust bunnies, some as big as tumbleweeds. There are things I hadn’t thought about for decades.

Writing a Memoir Isn’t the Only Option

While I’ve made the decision to write my stories in book form, that route isn’t for everyone. And as I go through this process, I realize there are many other ways to record our lives and legacies.

What’s a memoir anyway, but a collection of stories? So why not create a collection of pictures, memorabilia or any objects of significance in our lives, as a reflection of who we are?

10 Ways to Collect Your Memories

Pictures

Go through your pictures and add names, dates, places and relationships. Dig out sepia photos in old albums and include them in your collection. There are many scrapbooking apps to help you do this, if you are creatively inclined.

Stories

Choose a nice journal and start a handwritten diary of short stories about various events in your life. Don’t write them in any order – just record and date them as the memory comes to you.

Letters

Write a letter to each of your children, describing the events of the day they were born. If you have baby memorabilia, you could include them and make individual packages.

Parents

Jot down what you know about your parents: who they were, where they were from, what they did for a living, etc. Bring them to life with as much colorful detail as you can.

Voices

Use a recording device to tell a few stories and talk about important moments in your life. Wouldn’t it be nice to hear the voice of a loved one who has passed?

Time Capsule

Create a family time capsule to include items of interest for future generations, like clippings, letters, pictures, CDs. There are many great ideas online.

Recipes

Write out all your best recipes and where you got them, especially family holiday favorites. Add photos of the dish if you can.

Adventures and Challenges

Record the details of the biggest adventures and challenges in your life. Don’t be afraid to include your vulnerabilities and failures.

Collections

If you are a collector, make lists to describe the items, where you got them and any historical or appraisal information you have.

Heirlooms

If there is a family heirloom you plan to pass down, record what you know about it, any previous owners and where it came from.

Our Words Take Root

Whether we decide to preserve our stories in print or by using any of the ideas above, the process can be as long or short as we want. But most of us would like to be remembered for something.

So, leaving a bit of ourselves behind might be our best shot at a small slice of immortality. It’s up to each one of us to choose what we want to leave in our wake.

We ladies at Sixty and Me have lived millions of minutes on this planet and we all have important messages to leave behind. It may not matter to anyone today, but it’s like planting a tree. It’s all about the future.

How do you plan to tell your stories? Have you written a memoir or book, or are you recording memories of your life in some other way? Let’s have a conversation!

If you give a visual check of your fridge and pantry, it is more than likely that your pantry may come out as better stocked. This is probably true in most cases because there are other items stored besides food on the shelves.

Take a second to look and inventory how much packaged food you have in the pantry. Here are a few foods that are healthful and won’t get on the bad list:

• Brown organic pasta
• Black olives
• Organic olive oil
• Apple cider vinegar
• Canned wild salmon
• Quinoa
• Spices and herbs
• Regular oatmeal

What Should Reside in Your Fridge?

Please note that I am not telling you to go and throw out all the food in your pantry. However, your fridge should be laden with tons of fresh produce, yogurt, freshly prepared salad dressings, cheese and whatever else is fresh and healthful that doesn’t have a list of ingredients.

I, personally, don’t completely trust labels that have words like ‘healthy’ and ‘natural.’ These words can be interpreted in many different ways.

The Cost of Eating Fresh Foods

Many people feel that if they buy fresh foods it will cost them an arm and a leg and stretch budgets beyond their means. But, eliminating junk food from your house, such as chips, cookies, candy, sugary drinks and more, will save you a ton of money on its own. Another way of saving on fresh food is to look for sales and also purchase seasonal fruits and vegetables.

I admit: it sometimes takes more time to prepare fresh foods than it does to open a package or a can. I honestly spend between 15 and 30 minutes (at the most) to prepare our dinner. I like giving myself a pat on the back every day for eating healthy.

How Important Is Organic Food?

I do not buy only organic produce or any other organic foods. If you clean your produce properly you will rid a lot of the pesticide residue. If you are into buying only organic foods check to see if they are certified organic. Here is the famous “dirty dozen” of produce that is recommended by experts to buy organic.

Dirty Dozen

Apples

Celery

Tomatoes

Cucumbers

Grapes

Nectarines

Peaches

Potatoes

Spinach

Strawberries

Blueberries

Sweet red peppers

These fruits and veggies are more than likely to possess a heavy dose of pesticides. Not to worry about fruit with skins as the pesticides don’t penetrate very well. I have found that my favorite homemade produce cleaner cleans veggies and fruit really well.

Simple and Natural Produce Wash

Ingredients

White vinegar

Water

Baking soda

Hydrogen peroxide

Lemon juice

Directions

Add approximately 1 cup of white vinegar to a large spray bottle.

Add 1 heaping tablespoon of baking soda (do this very slowly or you will have the mixture all over your kitchen).

Add 1 cup of water.

Add about 1/4 teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide.

Squeeze the juice of one lemon.

Spray your fruit and veggies carefully with this mixture, and allow them to soak for about an hour. Then rinse them very carefully.

I am neither vegan nor vegetarian as I love beef, chicken and seafood. I make sure that my family consumes at least three servings of fruit and six servings of veggies a day. Food that doesn’t have a label is best as you will not have to spend time reading annoying and sometimes difficult to decipher labels.

If your diet already consists of mostly fresh foods, you can pat yourself on the back for eating healthy. Colorful veggies and fruit are recommended for their content of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients, but vegetables like cauliflower and celery have a lot of therapeutic value too.

Try different vegetables and stir fry them together. I even stir fry cucumbers, radishes and green onions.

Are you always trying to lose weight? I am one of those lucky women who do not have to worry about my weight. Actually, I did worry needlessly for years, but since I have stopped worrying, my weight has not changed more than a pound or two.

The good news is that most of what is in the fridge is lower in calories than what is in your pantry. So, when you get hungry, head for the fridge.

Easy Ideas for Healthy Eating from the Fridge

Make yourself a tasty dip of plain yogurt with lots of spices.

Keep a well-covered container of cut up veggies.

Keep a bowl of fresh fruit cut up for afternoon slumps.

Make your own salad dressing where you are familiar with all the ingredients.

What grade do you give your refrigerator and pantry in their current condition? What foods do you always keep in your refrigerator? Do you think it’s difficult to always cook from scratch? What foods do you buy organic? How often do you read package labels? Please join the conversation below!

One night, as we were filling the dishwasher, my daughter surprised me with a question: “Do you feel that you have been successful in your career?”

It wasn’t so long ago that I would have answered with a categorical “No.” After 30 years of zig-zagging in and out of assorted career paths, trying them on and then – Goldilocks-style – deciding they didn’t quite fit, I’ve never felt like a professional success.

In the last few years, after I finally managed to create a job for myself that I love, all that changed. But my daughter’s question did get me thinking about how we define success.

Success as Fame

When I was younger, I equated success with fame. A friend of mine – and fellow-traveller in the itinerant career trajectory – once confided to me that she had always wanted to be Charlie Rose.

Rose is the erstwhile television journalist who, before he was sacked for sexually harassing women, interviewed anyone and everyone in the political and cultural world. I responded, “I want to be on the Charlie Rose show,” by which I meant that I wanted someone to ask me to narrate my rise to stardom.

I have a few friends who’ve achieved this metric for success. They’re known quantities. And I do envy them. But as I age, I find that I don’t hanker after public recognition nearly as much as I used to. Over the years, success has become something much more intrinsic than extrinsic. Increasingly, it’s also much more about giving back.

Success as Money

Both of my kids have occasionally pointed out that I could make so much more money if I expanded my consulting clientele to encompass more companies in London’s financial district or more universities in the United States. While I’m happy to do both things, my kids don’t seem to get that I’m not necessarily looking to make that much more money.

I know loads of people who define success in monetary terms. And while, in a few cases, it has definitely made them happier, for a lot of them, it hasn’t. That’s another thing that comes with age – realizing that money, while useful to achieving certain ends, can only take you so far.

Success as Lack of Fear

Yet another way to define success is following your bliss without fear. I find that the people I admire most in the world aren’t necessarily those who are rich or famous, but those who discovered a passion and pursued it, Devil be damned.

That list encompasses a wide swath of people, including (in the rich and famous category), the writer Philip Roth who – whatever you think of him – believed in his own “crap.” It also includes the rock star Prince, who never conformed to anyone’s expectations about the sort of music he would play or even what name he would record under.

But the list also encompasses my Pilates instructor; a loud, Portuguese woman who shouts semi-inappropriate, border-line obscenities during our classes to urge us all on. It also includes Glen Wright, the author of Academia Obscura, who started a twitter feed – and wrote a book – all about the weird quirks of scholarly life. Both are laugh-out-loud funny, insightful and deeply – well – obscure.

Success as Perseverance

One final way to measure success is by how hard you try. My daughter occasionally writes for a local, community newspaper in London. One day, not long ago, when thumbing through it, I happened upon an entry she’d written on the topic of “role models.”

She hadn’t told me about this article, so I was taken aback when I discovered it. It read as follows:

My role model is my mother. I admire her for never giving up on her dream job, and for not being afraid to change careers as many times as it took her to feel professionally fulfilled. I also look up to my mum because of her steadfast belief that hard work always pays off; if she wants to get something done, she will not stop until she has achieved that which she set out to achieve. What will power!

I was deeply touched. Most of all, however, I was proud. Because I realized that I’d managed to transmit something to my daughter that was so much more important than anything I’ve ever written or produced. I’d bequeathed her the value of hard work, tenacity and pushing yourself to keep getting out there and trying.

And that alone made me feel like a success.

How do you define professional success? Has this definition changed with time? Why? What is your greatest success – professional or personal – that you are proud of? Please share with the community!

On top of upending the nation’s health system, the pandemic has had reverberating effects on where and how people live. This is particularly true among older adults, who rightfully have heightened health concerns and are reluctant to enter into – or remain in – retirement communities and assisted-living facilities where the spread of Covid-19 is well documented.

Beyond the potential for infection, these facilities pose another significant health risk: social isolation. Most are currently excluding visitors and sequestering residents, despite the well-documented negative emotional and physical impacts of living alone with little human interaction.

What are people to do? In an effort to avoid further health risks and keep isolation at bay until the pandemic subsides, many older Americans are moving in with their adult children. As most of us can probably imagine, however, living in close quarters with family members can create stress for all involved.

On one side, the adult daughters and sons inadvertently become sandwiched between the needs of their parents and those of their own children, on top of the stresses of working from home and, often, lost earning capacity.

On the other hand, older parents can easily find themselves in a situation where they’re grappling to maintain their sense of independence and not lean too heavily on their children.

Homesharing as a Potential Alternative

Homesharing – where homeowners rent out unused space in their homes to compatible, long-term roommates – is emerging as a lifeline for aging adults and their families during these turbulent times.

Through homesharing, older adults can avoid communal living situations, maintain their independence and reduce social isolation. Additionally, the arrangement can be financially beneficial for both parties through lowered housing costs and split expenses.  

While the adult children can support their parents through the process of selecting the optimal roommate and homesharing situation, the new roommate provides social connection, help with household upkeep and often unexpected friendship.

Useful Tips for Homesharing During the Pandemic

Homesharing requires extra precaution these days, but it can be a viable option for tens of thousands of Americans unexpectedly finding themselves in need of extra income, a more affordable living situation or simply another person to make sheltering-in-place a little less isolating.

If you decide homesharing is something you or your family would like to explore, here are some useful tips for making the transition as safe and smooth as possible:

Learn from the Experts

It’s a wise idea to periodically review the latest guidelines and information from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Follow these links to find out the symptoms of coronavirus/COVID-19 and ways to protect yourself and others. The CDC’s resources on coping with stress may also prove beneficial during this time.

Keep Apprised About Your Local and State Policies

Right now, local guidelines related to mask-wearing, public areas, and other pandemic-related topics vary by state, city and county. To find your local guidelines, your best bet is to visit the websites and social media channels of reputable news outlets and trusted governmental organizations, such as your state health department.

Swap Medical and Emergency Contact Information

Ensure your emergency contact information is current and that you have a plan to exchange it with your roommate. You may want to save your roommate’s information in your smartphone, in a secure physical location, or both.

Also, consider exchanging copies of health insurance cards, primary physician contact information, lists of known allergies and medications. If there are pets in the house, make a backup plan for their care in the event of an emergency.

Lay Down Ground Rules for Mitigating Covid-19 Risk

Sit down together for a compassionate conversation around social distancing practices, cleaning and other Covid-19 precautions. Keep in mind, you may have to revisit this conversation as recommendations and circumstances change.

Topics on the table should include:

• How often each of you needs to leave the house and why.
• The precautions you agree to take both in and outside the home.
• Best way to handle groceries and deliveries.
• New routines for regular cleaning and disinfection of frequently touched objects and surfaces in shared spaces. Think about things such as phones, remotes, door handles, countertops, sinks and light switches.
• Be detailed and specific. One of you may be more or less concerned – or at a higher risk – than the other. It may be slightly uncomfortable, but it’s best to discuss and articulate these issues sooner rather than later.

Discuss Personal Space and Privacy Needs

Even the closest of friends and family can get grumpy with each other when everybody’s holed up in the same house all the time. That’s why it’s smart to have another friendly conversation about ground rules about keeping things comfortable between the two of you.

A few things to consider:

• Working from home and the possible need for quiet during work periods.
• FaceTime or video-conferencing considerations (using headphones instead of speaker phone, keeping doors closed, etc.).
• Using shared entertainment devices, such as the primary TV or stereo system.
• Times of day when more or less interaction is preferred.

Make a Plan to Have Fun Together

One of the more inspiring developments taking place during the Covid-19 crisis is the many creative ways people have found to entertain themselves while staying at home. Be playful and open-minded – this is an opportunity for you and your roommate to learn more about each other and perhaps develop a shared interest that brings you closer.

Try one of these ideas, or come up with your own:

• If you sing or play an instrument, make music together or introduce each other to recordings by your favorite artists.
• Share an exercise routine. Exercise is crucial to boosting your mood, alleviating stress and improving your immune function. There are lots of free online classes available via YouTube and others. Your local yoga studio or gym may even be hosting online classes.
• Institute a regular game night or ongoing puzzle challenge.
• Treat each other to an “I’ll cook” night and make it special by using your best tableware or choosing a theme for the evening.

If you are actively looking for a new roommate, use FaceTime, Zoom or other videoconferencing tools to conduct interviews and get to know prospects virtually. Also, take this time to sort through your personal items and see if you can find ways to downsize in preparation for sharing space with someone else.

Finally, carefully consider your move-in date – every situation is different and the situation is changing fast, so pick an optimal date for the two of you amid current circumstances.

Where do you currently live? Have you moved in with your adult children? Would you consider taking in a roommate or becoming one? What ideas about shared living do you have? Please share with the community!