Feisty Side of Fifty/Baby Boomer Women

Women Over 50: Age is NOT a Disease!

Most every baby boomer woman will acknowledge the impact Ms. Magazine has had on her life. Whether or not you subscribed to this truly trailblazing periodical, Gloria Steinem and the other courageous women of that remarkable staff made it possible for us to take on rolls that were previously unimaginable for women. We’ve enjoyed careers and positions of authority that were denied the “weaker sex” throughout history and we’ve shown ‘em we can handle most everything just as well (if not better) than our male counterparts.

I am thrilled that the founding editor of this groundbreaking magazine selected Feisty Side of Fifty to help launch her summer series on “Embracing Our Age.” Suzanne Braun Levine has spent a lifetime working in support of women, families, and women’s issues. Having been instrumental in creating untold opportunities for boomer women in the past, she’s now helping us create vital, healthy, and successful lives after fifty.

To these ends, Suzanne has written a number of books on aging including Inventing the Rest of Our Lives: Women in Second Adulthood and Fifty is the New Fifty: Ten Life Lessons for Women in Second Adulthood. One of the major and most joyful of the life lessons she shares is that growing older is not (I repeat, NOT) a disease.

Suzanne writes of the menopausal zest Margaret Meade described years ago. Although women in previous generations no doubt “felt the zest,” it is yet one more boomer blessing that we are fortunate enough to actually live it! With a little of what Suzanne terms, “mindful maintenance,” we can take on new ventures and adventures with gusto; we can thrive in the second half of life and we can push our boundaries even further than we ever thought. Want to learn how to dance the salsa? Why not? Want to learn to skydive? Who’s stopping you? Want to learn most anything? Just go for it—at this age, we’re most often limited only by the limits we place upon ourselves.

So take a brief 15 minutes to listen to our interview and hear what Suzanne has to say about embracing our age. Then be sure and catch every interview in this exciting 10-part series. Suzanne will be describing each of the ten life lessons and how she’s seen them lived out through the numerous women she’s interviewed. She calls these ladies “horizontal role models.” I promise, you’ll come away renewed and revitalized as you’re touched by these flesh and blood examples of living fully and joyfully after fifty!