Okay, let’s not sugar coat this – getting old is a bitch! There’s no instruction manual to read or special training we can take along the way. The scary world of aging is filled with shocks and surprises around every wrinkled corner.

And you know what shock does to aging boomers? It makes our hair whiter, our poop tighter and our pacemakers pound out the beat to Jerry Lee Lewis’s Great Balls of Fire.

Mirror, Mirror Is that Me?

Personally, I thought I would always be 32 because that’s how I feel on the inside, and in my dreams I’m always 32o. Then one day… WHAM!

Mother time kicked me in my assets and announced my coming of age into the crusty rusty years. I looked into the mirror and found a 70-year-old grandmother with a double mastectomy under her belt, a few corporate battle scars in her wake and a closet full of comfortable shoes.

Putting One Foot in Front of the Other

I once read that certain species of sharks have to keep swimming forward to keep oxygen-rich water flowing through their gills.

This seems like a good rule to follow as a metaphor in human life as well. Standing still or hanging on to what we once had can be suffocating. When I stagnate and marinate in my own juices for too long I feel sad, lonely and old; very, very old.

So I make like a shark and keep moving, regardless of my growing list of limitations.

From Fashion to Constipation

Now here I am, in the dawn of my twilight years, surrounded by a gaggle of gently used human beings. I live in a condo full of seniors, I sit next to the senior-set at the doctor’s office, my friends are getting more wrinkled every day and my dentist is as old as I am.

Even my two younger sisters are fast approaching in my rearview mirror. We used to giggle and talk about young boys, designer shoes, stressful careers, bringing up kids and vacations. And while we still giggle over a glass or two of chardonnay, now we talk about old men, sciatica problems, knee replacements, grandkids and constipation.

Large and in Charge

It’s way too easy to become marginalized as we age and have our voices drowned out by the ubiquitous chatter in the world around us. It’s important for my happiness and wellbeing to stay relevant and be heard.

So a big part of each life-breath I take is the ranting and raving I do about how I see the world around me in all its glory and carbuncles.

I write my Boomerrantz blog, I pen letters to local council about the Canada Geese problem in the parks and I publish magazine and newspaper articles about topical events that matter to me. And I don’t hesitate to challenge those in charge, by asking questions and advocating for myself at every opportunity.

Flushing It Out

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not the kind of cranky old senior who always feels perpetually aggrieved. On the contrary, I’m actually an unusually happy septuagenarian and my half of the glass is always the top half.

But the act of ranting about things I find unjust or unfair is like a good liver cleanse; it helps to flush out the clogged arteries of my cranky zones and restore a sense of balance to my life. Sometimes the rants in my pants simply need a good airing out, and blogging about my aging boomer opinions seems to do the trick.

Balancing the Scales

But it’s not all about the dark side of 60 that has me blogging my boney fingers to the nub. I love to do my share of raving as well. There are still many joys in this world, and I’m at the front of the line to appreciate the good things in life; as simple as a morning smile, or a tip of the brim from a stranger.

Our Point of View Matters

But here’s something about many older women. We love to worry about wrinkles and waistlines, instead of celebrating our cellulite and the wisdom of our years.

We worry about that dreadful whisker that popped out on our chin overnight, instead of taking comfort in the freedom that comes with getting older.

We worry about our white hair and thinning locks, instead of enjoying that second cup of coffee in the morning, happy that we no longer have to strap ourselves into a pair of pantyhose to go to work. And we wear far too much beige and black and never enough electric blue, fire-engine red and emerald green.

One More Thing…

For those of you who love to write and have never tried it, blogging is a wonderful way to stay connected with a talented online community and get our voices heard. It’s a way to organize our thoughts and tap into the things that really matter to us. It’s a way to simply have fun and entertain our friends and family with our stories.

The way I see it – blogging is like opening a steam vent on a pressure cooker of unspoken words. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you between the lines.

What do you like to rant about? Do you do any blogging? Why or why not? Please join the conversation.

Eboni K. Williams’ Yellow Tank on WWHL

Watch What Happens Live June 8, 2021 Fashion

Eboni K. Williams looked as cute as can be in her bright and summery yellow tank top on last night’s episode of Watch What Happens Live. Which we’ve linked down below so too you can look just as cheerful and happy (and not at all angry) in it as she did. 

Fashionably,

Faryn

Click Here to Shop Her Alice + Olivia Tank in Yellow or White on Sale

Originally posted at: Eboni K. Williams’ Yellow Tank on WWHL

Ramona Singer’s Black Blazer With Luann in Flashbacks

Real Housewives of New York Season 13 Episode 6 Fashion

Ramona Singer Spender! Needless to say Ramona Singer’s black blazer in this flashback scene with Luann on last night’s episode of RHONY totally gave us some serious Meredith Marks / Lisa Barlow vibes. And in our opinion was totally worth the hefty $2,295 (before tax!) price tag considering it’s sure to become a Balmainstay in her closet. 

Fashionably,

Faryn

Click Here to Shop Her Balmain Blazer

Originally posted at: Ramona Singer’s Black Blazer

We live in such an amazing time, a golden age of literacy. We are not relegated to just the stories of books and films, but have the capacity to share our own stories in written form.

This is powerful and sacred work, a tool for understanding our condition within the human condition. Writing can be a portal into what Plato called “the examined life.” And writing leaves in its wake a personal and cultural her-story (history) that can inform future generations.

If I were to title this decade of my 60s, I would call it Reclamation.

These years continue to reveal themselves as a time of taking to heart the things I thought lost or broken. As I’ve gathered these things to me I’ve come to find that nothing is ever really lost and those broken parts aren’t as broken as I’d thought.

Part of my reclamation is rediscovering the younger version of me who sat with that small, electric Corona typewriter and made up stories when I was barely in double digits. Gathering to my heart the pain of unrequited poetry and journals full of angst and dreams.

Oh, what a time it was.

Your 60s and upward are really the perfect time to gather your stories and share them with family or friends, to recount tales of extraordinary courage, or perseverance and tell your heroine’s journey. There are several ways you can do this:

Record Your Reflections in a Journal

Journals reveal those snippets of life through daily or regular reflection. They are less about what happened and more about capturing the tone, feeling and insight of what happened. They are an expression of the heart.

As a young woman, I was enamored with Anais Nin’s journals that explored her sensuality and sexual being, her search of what was uniquely hers.

Later on I would fall in love with May Sarton’s Journal of a Solitude, a watershed book for a woman writer of that day because it was less polite than it was angry (an emotion not always culturally acceptable for women).

I have only one rule for journal writing: date your work. The dates are signposts that allow you to look back and know where you were in your life when you wrote that passage.

The Slight Difference Between Diary and Journal

In our day, lots of young women had diaries. I got one for my 12th birthday. It was white leather and had a little lock on it, guaranteeing that my thoughts would be private. A diary is a chronology of personal events, a report on the details of the day whereas a journal is more self-reflective, an examination of life that may lead to insight.

Diaries have grown into something more than writing about the cute lifeguard at the pool that you were falling in love with – yep, that’s what I filled my first diary with, a recollection of summer days spent poolside, imagining my life as Mrs. Lifeguard.

Diaries now can be garden diaries or kitchen diaries, the tracking of life through those places. My friend, Tod Davis, wrote a book called Jam Today, that is really a kitchen diary, filled with observations and recipes – an absolute delight.

And if you want to take the deep dive into diaries, read Tristine Rainer’s book, The New Diary. It’s a work from the 1970’s, which is still valid today.

Write an Autobiography

Autobiography and memoir are somewhat synonymous, but I like to make a distinction between the two. Autobiography is the full story of a life. I think of Howard Thurman’s amazing autobiography, With Head and Heart, which recounts his earliest childhood recollections to his meeting with Martin Luther King, to the first integrative church that he built in San Francisco.

What a story.

Memoir, the way I hold it, is about a slice-of-life event that changed and transformed you, the writer. For instance, Sue Monk Kidd wrote a book called, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, which is her story about moving from Christian tradition into the sacred feminine. Within the church she grew up in, her memoir begs the question: “Where are all the women?”

As you can see, there are several ways to write your life. Of course, there is no right or wrong way. You can tell your life beginning to end, or you can tell your story through your years as a quilter or a hiker.

Life is rich and there are so many ways to reveal our her-story. Some questions you might want to ask yourself:

• Am I writing for publication or self-publication?
• Who am I writing for? Is it for my family and friends? Am I writing just for me?
• Do I want to tell the story of my entire life, or a segment of my life?
• Am I more comfortable with the musings of journaling, or do I want to create a book?

How do you like to write about your life? Who will read your memories? Are you ready to share with just yourself of with family? Or how about with the world? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

I can’t think of a product that blew up the past year as much as blush, thanks in part to TikTok. Folks starting favoring an ultra-rosy glow with blush over the previously trendy contour-and-highlight look. So when I saw one luxe blush popping up all over my FYP, I knew I had to do a Dior Rosy Glow Blush review. What drew me most to the product was its light pink hue that actually customizes to any skin tone. Count me in.

Dior Beauty’s Backstage Rosy Glow Blush also comes in light coral but I’m all about pink these days. It features what the brand calls “Color Reviver” technology that reacts to the skin’s moisture level for a custom rosy color.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.

Dior Beauty.

I applied the rest of my makeup first. I used Tarte’s new-and-improved Amazonian Clay Foundation, Shape Tape Ulta Creamy Contour Concealer, Nars’ new Summer Solstice Eyeshadow Palette ($49 at Ulta) and M.A.C.’s new Love Me Liquid Lipcolour in Laissez-Faire ($24 at Ulta). (I’m obsessed with this lip formula!) I finished with a few swipes of another TikTok fave: Maybelline’s Sky High Mascara ($8.98 at Amazon).

Elizabeth Denton.

Tarte’s foundation is pretty full coverage so I look a bit like a ghost. I couldn’t wait to apply Dior’s blush across the apples of my cheeks and my nose—an application TikTok made so famous.

Elizabeth Denton.

It really is the perfect rosy glow that’s easy to build without looking too dramatic. I mean, look how pretty it looks on TikToker @rebeccaariv, along with the Dior Backstage Glow Face Palette ($45 at Sephora).

While $37 isn’t cheap for one blush, I can see why it’s so popular. Dior Beauty products are really versatile. And with one blush working on multiple different skin tones, that makes this one pretty foolproof. As TikTokers say, Dior Beauty’s Backstage Rosy Glow Blush gets a 10/10.