Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry.
~American Pie

The other day I had a long update message from someone I knew 50 years ago. Half a century! A deep wave of nostalgia washed over me me. It was so deeply pervasive that it brought me to tears. I remember the girl I was back then and I grieved a little for her and her naivete.

Oh, to be back in those days of youthful innocence, when the world was an open road and my life a blank slate. The view is very different from the place I’m in now.

I’ve worked hard and also been amazingly lucky. I’ve won and lost in love and had miraculous things happen. Whenever I hear “OK, Boomer!” I have to laugh. The life experience and wisdom gained from living when I did? I wouldn’t trade a bit of it for what the 21st century is.

Which is why I love this time every week, when my Baby Boomer peers share their thinking in blog posts that are always interesting…thought-provoking…and worth reading. So, the gang’s all here, and here we go!

When Diane Tolley’s Husby took her to see the Hobbit, both of them learned something they didn’t expect . . .Sometimes our greatest lessons come from the smallest sources.What would you do?

Life feels backwards these days. In what seemed like seconds, Laurie Stone went from many years of her husband Randy away on business while she stayed home with two kids, to the kids gone and Randy home. Retirement is this interesting hybrid of their bohemian twenties and creaky sixties. Some things Laurie thankfully does less of — like pretending she understands long division or worrying about new driving permits. But here are 6 things she finds herself doing more.

Watch out for fake covid tests online, advises Rita R. Robison, consumer and personal finance journalist. In addition to wasting your money, fake tests increase your risk of unknowingly spreading covid-19 or not getting the correct treatment.

One of the not-so-fun things about growing older is finding it harder to sleep. Many of us wake up frequently during the night. Rebecca Olkowski with BabyBoomster.com has found some solutions to getting better sleep as we age. Read her post, “Having Trouble Sleeping Over 50? These Tips May Help.”

Medicare does not cover dental costs. But as Tom from Sightings Over Sixty relates in Oh, My Aching Tooth, the pain doesn’t always stop with the bills. Has this ever happened to you? The dentist can’t quite figure out what’s going wrong . . . and so it’s back for another visit, then another and another.

January is International Creativity month and Jennifer, of Unfold and Begin, is kicking it off by sharing Creativity Myths and How to Destroy Them.  If you’ve ever wondered if you were creative or felt like you needed inspiration in order to be creative, then you need to read this post.

Meryl Baer had a jam-packed week and is off this week.

If you don’t follow these fun bloggers, hope you’ll consider doing that! And don’t forget that gentle tools for healing and grief can be found here.