Month: April 2025

Moving takes planning but with pets, it takes extra planning. Your pets will sense something is up. Having a plan in place will help to ease the stress and make a smoother transition for all.

Moving Is Stressful

Moving to a new home is exciting, but for women over 60 it can be a stressful time. Especially if you have pets. Your pets are in tune to you. They sense your moods, your ups and downs. And most of all, they know when the moving boxes and suitcases come out!  Moving with pets makes the process a bit more complicated.

You’ve looked for and bought a pet-friendly home in a new city. You’ve done your due diligence and checked the pet restrictions and local laws.  Now you’re all set and getting ready to go.

Trip to the Vet

Plan a trip to the vet. Make sure your pets’ vaccinations are up to date, especially rabies. Get a copy of your pet’s medical records and enough medication they may need for the trip and the immediate future. You can usually have their records emailed to you, on a flash drive, or on disc.

Ask your vet for a recommendation for a vet in the city you’re moving to. You might get lucky, and they may just know one! Update your pet’s ID tags and microchip records. This is vitally important if your pet should get out!

Carrier for Each Pet

Put together a carrier for each pet. Bring along an old tee shirt or article of clothing that has your scent. Put it in the carrier or in with your pet’s bedding. It will help to calm them.

Pack a bag for your pets. Make sure you have enough food, water, treats, medications, leashes, familiar toys, beds and blankets, potty bags, pee pads, etc. for your pets for several days, if not more. You want to be prepared in case the movers get held up, or something else causes a delay getting your things to your new home for a few days.

Moving Day

Try to keep pets as calm as possible on moving day. They will know something is going on. This includes leaving your old home and arriving at your new home. Perhaps your furry friends can spend a few hours with a relative or friend while the moving truck is being packed. If not, confine them to one area.

Make sure your pets are wearing their tags with your contact information. You don’t want anyone getting out. Same thing when you arrive – make sure your pets are safe as your furniture is being unloaded. If they can stay with a friend, in daycare or in the car with you, that should be fine.

Welcome to Your New Home

Once your furniture and belongings are brought into your new home, make sure to set up a new space for your furkids. You want your pets to have a sense of familiarity and start to feel comfortable in their new surroundings. Put their old, familiar beds, blankets and toys into this area. They need a place to feel safe and at home.

Having their own beds, blankets, crates, toys, and whatever you use for them – and having you there – will be a big help in getting your pets settled in their new home!

Welcome home!

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Are you a woman over 60 with pets? Are you planning a move in the near future? Do you have any questions that might help make your move easier? Let’s talk about it!

The Cambridges might be growing.

April is National Poetry Month and if you have not thought about poetry since high school, it might be a good time to rediscover its wonders. Poetry is the voice of the soul; it is a free-flowing form of expression. The best poetry comes to you when you write about feelings, observations, and images as they arrive.

Poetry is a powerful genre because it allows self-expression and thus can increase your sense of well-being. In addition, reading and writing poetry not only leads to healing and transformation, but it can make you a better writer.

The Many Benefits of Writing Poetry

In general, writing poetry fosters the development of keen observational skills because in order to write good poetry, you need to be in touch with all of your senses. For example, instead of saying that something is beautiful, it’s more compelling to show why something is beautiful. In practice, this may look like this: when writing about flowers, you might say that the color is radiant, and the fragrance is like honeysuckle. This technique is called, “showing rather than telling.”

Writing poetry can also be healing, especially when you write about events or experiences that you’re still coming to terms with or still processing.

Freestyle Poetry

If rhyming intimidates you, don’t worry, because modern day poetry has very little rhyme. I’m a fan of narrative poetry because it’s most akin to memoir writing. It is poetry that tells a story. In many ways, writing poetry can move you closer to your center of creativity. It also stimulates the right brain. Poetry can also help you claim your voice.

If you want to write poetry, my best advice is to listen to the voice in your head. Writing poetry can help transform your life and aid you in dealing with difficult issues.

Because poetry is a succinct genre where every word counts, it teaches you the power of words. Writing poetry teaches you how to be concise and get to the point of what you want to say. Poetry also encourages the creation of images and metaphors. It’s a good idea to provide many details in the poem and to be as specific as possible. When writing about someone else, consider having a photo of them nearby so you can easily visualize them.

You can find many of my poems here: Selected Poems.

What It Takes to Become a Poet

To become a good poet, it is important to read a lot of poetry for inspiration. It’s also a way to get some ideas about form. Sometimes it’s fun to listen to poets read their poems. In fact, after you write your poem, one way to edit it is to read it out loud. This is because poetry was meant to be a spoken form of expression.

Try These Prompts

Here are some good prompts to get started when you want to begin writing poetry:

1. Title your poem “I remember.” Recall an event in your life and share all the details of it in your poem. The reader should feel as if they are remembering alongside you.
2. Write an ode to someone you love. Provide details about why you love them.
3. In poetic form, write a letter of apology to someone you disappointed, or you think you disappointed.
4. Write a poem about your first boyfriend/girlfriend and what you remember about them and your relationship.
5. You could write a poem about someone who has passed away by framing it as a present-day event that triggers a favorite memory of them.
6. Write a poem about a secret you never told anyone.
7. Describe your day in a snapshot.
8. Write a poem about all the things you love.

Happy writing!

Further reading: Try Something New: Write a Poem and Stretch Your Brain.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Do you read poetry? What’s your favorite author? How about writing poetry – is it a favorite creative activity? What prompts do you use? If you haven’t written any poems yet, what’s stopping you?

Focusing on nurturing body, mind, and spirit or drilling further into 6-8 dimensions of wellness to intentionally build a balanced and vibrant adult life has finally become mainstream! There are more ways than ever to embrace Holistic Health.

Currently, environmental wellness is in the spotlight with research linking nature and good health. Being personally immersed in Montana’s natural beauty for most of my life, I agree! But after 25+ years as a healthy aging specialist, I know that environmental wellness encompasses more than parks, gardens, nature sanctuaries, forests, and oceans. It also includes how effectively your more immediate ‘created’ environments (home, yard, neighborhood, etc.) support wellbeing.

The Environment and Emotional Health

How we as individuals perceive our environment, navigate changes around us, and process our emotional experiences around these changes, significantly impacts health.

For example, when moving into a senior living community, some new residents embrace the change by finding gratitude and joy in their new opportunity-rich environment. Some begrudgingly accept this change but remain emotionally removed from the new environment, and others vigorously resist this change, often getting stuck in resentment that actively diminishes well-being.

Also read, 5 Ways to Experience a Fulfilled Life in a Senior Living Community.

EmbracingChange or Throwing Caution to the Wind?

These ‘professional observations’ became very personal this year as my husband and I made a dramatic life change.

Bozeman, Montana has been our home for 48 years and over the past decade has been continually rated as a top place to live for its beautiful surroundings, vibrant town, and proximity to endless outdoor recreation. Our 20-acre property is blessed with stunning mountain views, is 1.5 miles from the Gallatin National Forest, and 1 hour from Yellowstone National Park.

And we sold our place and moved.

Why? The short answer is because the area is changing so dramatically that we had to decide whether we could fully accept this forced change – or make our own change. I’ve absolutely loved living in Bozeman where I would load my horse in a trailer and be at a trailhead in 10 minutes, ride for 2-3 hours and be home by noon; making it easy to run my consulting business while also enjoying an outdoor lifestyle. I never imagined leaving!

But it has become one of the fastest growing communities in the U.S., bringing congestion we’ve never experienced and encroachment of new homes being built around us. We could have chosen to tolerate the change. Staying would have been far easier than moving after 42 years in the same location.

However, a mindset of just tolerating change didn’t appeal to either of us. We chose instead to take charge of change, prioritize an environment that supports our well-being in all areas of health, and actively create a new opportunity to love where we live!

At Your Age?

At age 69 and 67 respectively, my husband and I bought and moved to a more rural 125-acre Montana property and started a new adventure! Believe me, we’ve had plenty of people express the at your age sentiment – shouldn’t you be downsizing, what about access to healthcare, etc.? But ultimately, we decided that we would rather be gearing up for something than gearing down!

I’ve been alternately excited and terrified! What if we don’t like it as much as we have liked Bozeman? What if we can’t find our ‘tribe’ of like-minded people? And many other what ifs that attempted to stop us.

But what if we love the new place? What if we can easily build a new community of friends, and have a wonderful adventure for the last decades of our life?

Practicing What I Preach

So, after decades of wellness coaching – encouraging others to live large through their full lives and refuse to allow age to define capabilities, I’m practicing what I preach! Fear won’t keep me from challenging myself, and I won’t waste my energy on worry, but instead will use it to believe, create, trust, and grow.

That favorite quote and my lifelong work empowering healthy aging is helping me through this change! Visit Brilliant Aging for more information, and to access many free resources on lifelong health and vitality!

I’ll continue to share our experience with the Sixty & Me community as we build this new vision for our last decades, and promise to be open about the challenges (it hasn’t been easy) as well as the rewards (surprise instant community). I know many of you have been through huge transitions in your lives, and I encourage you to share your thoughts and advice!

Let’s Have a Conversation:

What is the biggest transition you’ve invited into your adult life? What strategies helped you navigate that transition? Have you faced challenges that you didn’t invite into your life, and how did you navigate that unwelcome change?

Is there trouble in paradise?