It is no small task to keep up with all the people, older friends, long time acquaintances whom seniors wish to remember at holiday time. Even with the Internet, it is still possible that they will have slipped between the cracks since last year. Moves, death, disability, choice, misplaced means for contact all contribute to our being absent to people who have long meant much to us. It is an undertaking to identify where they are now, what their life is like, how we are to be in touch with them.

Doing so, however, offers huge reward. Slipping the bonds of contact is not something we do intentionally. It just happens. And with that, we have misplaced a treasure of our life, never to be regained.

Before we are too deep into the holidays, seniors deserve to take the time to do the archeology necessary to uncover means for staying in touch with long time friends. It may require considerable digging. It may mean a minimal investment. It may take some phone calls. But once the discovery is made, the reward is

You, dear Reader, are never taken for granted. While you may have spent half the night in lines awaiting Black Friday bargains, while you may have gorged yourself into a state of euphoria on Thanksgiving Day, while you may have an agenda a foot long for today’s demands, and while you may have little or no time to drop by, we don’t take you for granted.

You are what makes us go. You are the motivation that keeps SCJ alive and vital and current. You are the one who inspires us to get up and be about it. You are the fulfillment of our goals. You are the initiative that spurs us to be here for you day after day… thanks to you, you are the reason we exist.

During these holidays you may visit us less frequently, you nevertheless are in our thoughts. Someone out here is

BBs Redefine Retirement We senior citizens have been told for several years now that Baby Boomers will redefine retirement.  They have redefined almost everything else they lived through.  Why not include retirement?  BBs are those folk born after WWII, beginning about 1946 and ending about 1965.// Baby Boomers are the generation that wants to live [...]

Senior Citizen Journal’s(SCJ) commitment to partnering with seniors for productive aging just received a huge boost. The Aging in America conference was held over the weekend (April 1, 2012) in Washington DC. The president and CEO of AgeWave, Ken Dychtwald said, “Anyone who thinks [the boomers] will turn 65 and be the same as the generation before are missing out on the last 60 years of sociology,” he said. “The boomers change every stage of life through which they migrate.” (HuffPost, April 2, 2012)

SCJ has been writing about the influence of Baby Boomers for almost four years now. Average longevity for men and women is now pushing 90 years. Living beyond 100 is no longer unusual. Seniors today know they probably have many productive years after they retire, if they retire at all. We’re looking at a new model of senior living.

Oscar Night Highlights Seniors Did you watch the Oscars?  We did, and both of us were struck with how many senior citizens were honored with Oscars. First, Billy Crystal was the host and he is 63.  Meryl Streep got Best Actress; she is 62.  Christopher Plummer is 82 and he received Best Supporting Actor; he [...]

When we began creating Senior Citizen Journal, we had no idea that it would come to have such popular and consistent readership internationally. Our efforts, while humble, have come to suggest that seniors are curious and concerned for their day to day welfare and productivity. Rightly so. We are pleased that our contributions are so widely and well received. We are hopeful that they will continue to be. We are committed to reflect the concerns and issues which are part of a senior’s on-going adjustments to aging.

It happens that your issues are the very ones that catch us up in our day to day questions, struggles, interests. The fact is that we have a great deal in common. That is so because we are at the very center of the concerns that are tantamount to growing older. Frankly, aging is a process. And that process engages us in identifying all the variety of issues that present

Aging doesn’t happen all at once. Margery Williams, famous for “The Velveteen Rabbit,” allows that it takes awhile. Your fur rubs off and eyes drop out. That’s a pretty accurate picture.

No, we don’t learn it all at once. We don’t discover the amazing secrets that come with experience and lessons from our elders and our own stumblings and fumblings as we grow older.

A repetitive surprise that seems to come our way as we age is believing that you are now (state your current age). It seems only yesterday that my age was so much less an issue. It seems impossible that I have been retired (state how long). It just isn’t conceivable that my parents have lived as long as they did or have. It isn’t really true that my grandchildren are in

In retirement, during those days when you are somewhat cast adrift, bored or otherwise feel useless, how do you find something in which to invest yourself that gives your life meaning and purpose and satisfaction?

One of the admirable qualities of many who have retired is discovering something uniquely special and creatively enterprising that they can do. Some of the things include: doing wood working, making toys for children, repairing bicycles and giving them away to children who wouldn’t otherwise have them. Or having been somewhat proficient at mechanics, repair an old car and help a young man or woman learn how to keep it running. Or build backyard playgrounds or identify city land on which safe structures can be built and maintained available for neighborhood children.

Aging brings with it realization. Realization is an awakening. An awakening helps us to sort out just who we are as we count down the years. Defining who we are means that we can look at ourselves, inwardly and outwardly, to determine if we draw satisfaction with that person we call I or me.

Among the important issues that bear scrutiny are these few. Numerous others obviously emerge and tempt our recognition. A lot of them certainly are worthy of more than a scant evaluation. .

Choosing to allow integrity to have more sway in my life than lack of it.

Turning over the authority of your body and mind, post 70, to the enemies who invade us, amounts to waging a very intentional battle. There is no way to escape the full complement of weaknesses to which we may be prone. There is a way to hold some of them at bay.

Let’s investigate the latter: Aging is a very predictable process which will find its subtle and not so subtle ways of reducing our abilities and discouraging our strength and stamina. The first lesson is not to give in. Often, following on a major surgery or other illness, our bodies seem to want to “give up.” The easy chair becomes more and more desirable. Exercise is less and less appealing. Both of these enemies are certain to prevail, if we let them.