Ann Buttenwieser: 1st Life - Motherhood, 2nd Life - "Floating Pool Lady"

                                                                                                                         (Photo: Etienne Frossard)

New Year, New You, New Second Lives Club

                                                                                                               (photo-Happy Herbivore Blog)

Happy New Year, and it is truly a new one for SecondLivesClub.com. We’re changing platforms in more ways than one!  As we come up with some new directions to enhance our community, this blog will continue with some guest posts but be more focused on identifying and promoting exemplary 2nd Life role models.  We want to feature one a week and, in fact you can help.  If you know of a 50+ woman who is in the process of establishing or already living her second life that you think stands out above the rest, let us know and we will feature her.  

Women taking bigger leaps and risks can make for livelier reading but these stories don't have to be about major makeovers. They don't even have to be about reaching the end goal but rather about taking those first baby steps.  And they don't have to be about saving the world, they can be about having a personal adventure. "Reinvention is really ambiguity fused with self confidence", as was redefined for us last night by Jan Pauley promoting her new book on this subject at the 92St. Y in Manhattan.  

Some of you may remember the profile we did on Susan who left her career as a film maker to write her first novel and start a nonprofit organization. And there's Marsha who left corporate America to build her own career counseling company. Maggie was a linguist before joining a real estate venture catering to empty nesters. Now let us introduce you to Annabel Davis who spent 20 years as a police constable in the UK and is now an in demand model and actress at age 60? Want to know how she did it? Read on…

Bring in Your Parents Day

Maryl likes this new LinkedIn program

Think of it as the reverse of Career Day at your school when parents would describe their careers to your class mates.  I would liked to have had Bring in Your Parents Day, which debuted last month, with my parents although I did bring them to my workplace once or twice. Even though I worked for a few major American corporations, I always had more nontraditional job titles that didn't automatically make clear what I actually did. Titles like General Manager-Media Centers, Director-Brand Web Experience, Cultural Arts Marketing Manager don't exactly conjure up images of someone being productive like a lawyer, teacher or firefighter. Know what the three most misunderstood job titles are today?

Looking For A Good Read? Look No Further Than Canada.

Caryl lists 7 Best Books from 2013--all with a surprising connection

Five-time  Agatha award winner Louise Penny may be reading one of her mysteries.  Who knows?
Maybe Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. 

With Thanksgiving behind us and Christmas gaining on us, we need a moment to relax, unwind, catch our collective breath. And what better way to return to our calmer selves than settling in with a good book. But what to read? Lately, I’ve become addicted to author Louise Penny (pictured above). She’s a mystery writer who sets her stories in the remote outreaches of Quebec.  Surprisingly, I have never read this genre before, and geography doesn't ordinarily influence my book choices (okay, occasionally India) but I’m smitten. Actually, another Canadian author is my book club's selection for December. Next Monday, we will be discussing Dear Life, the latest and reportedly last book by a “shy housewife” who began writing short stories in the 1960s at her kitchen table in Western Canada while her three daughters napped or were at school. This year, Alice Munro, now 82 and with 14  short-story collections behind her, won the Nobel Prize for literature. Another Canadian-born writer 54 years her junior, just snagged the Man-Booker prize for her second novel.

What’s the story with these Canadian women who have stealthily entered our literary canon? I found the answer at Publishers Weekly where associate reviews editor (and coincidentally—ha!—my daughter) Annie Coreno considers her own conspiracy theory in (if I do say so) a brilliant post.

Foods to Eat When You Are Stressed

Ruth stresses, whether to crunch or to slurp? 

Are you the kind of stress eater that needs to chew to relieve stress? Do you reach for something to crunch when you munch? Or do you need the soothing melt in your mouth feeling? We are hot wired to satisfy our emotional needs through food. As we enter one of the most stressful times of year think about how to create healthy choices, and keep these suggestions in your cupboard.

Second Chances, Happy Endings and Free Stuff

Caryl adds: Plus everything you need to know about creative aging in 10 steps! 

Frieda is the leading lady (one might say diva dog) in Jon Kat'z  new book Second Chance Dog: A Love Story 

This is a dog story. It’s not my dog story. Mine is tragic. When my children were small, they campaigned for a dog. After much consideration and a written plea by my older daughter listing reasons why our family needed a dog and what kind of breed would meet her parents’ criteria—not too big, not too small, doesn’t shed etc.-- my husband and I gave in. Friday, a medium-size, non-shedding—(we forgot to mention no baying at the moon!) beagle with floppy ears, soulful eyes and a tail that stood up like a flag on the back of a bicycle, came to live with us. Fast forward a few years: my husband decides to take a job in Prague, and I am left with two children, a demanding job and an animal menagerie: a cat (Fritz), two birds (Feather and Sunshine), a hampster (Petey) and Friday, a dog that needed to be walked on the mean streets of New York late at night. I admit with shame, remorse and some embarrassment, I couldn’t handle it by myself. I couldn't leave my children alone to walk a dog no matter how persuasive were those soulful eyes. So Friday went to live with my in-laws in Cleveland where she enjoyed a fenced-in back yard, home-cooked meals and the adoration of empty-nesters.

But that’s not the dog story I am here to tell you.  The dog story I want to share is a happy one—and it’s about Frieda, the dog pictured above, and how she brought together two Second Lifers who learned about the resilience of love from a four-legged outcast who ran wild in the Adirondacks until she was rescued.

Second Lives as Expats in France, Part 3

Maryl meets Martine Whitelaw

Martine’s move to Provence is actually a return to her nation of origin. Like Maggie, some of her choices had to do with meeting a man. And like Nili she did some country hopping too. 

Martine started out in the family business, a large drugstore chain in Paris. When she decided to take a longer vacation in Mexico, she wasn’t planning to stay on until she met someone.  The couple moved to San Francisco and married.  But there's more to her first life. 

Losing Mentors, Moving Closer to the Top

Maryl moves up a rung on the ladder of life.

Immie Fiorentino                                                               Arnie Lazarus

Both my husband and I lost mentors this past week. I use the term informally in that mine was someone I first learned of from a college textbook and then had the privilege to work with on a number of projects.  Immie was especially fun to have lunch with too. Allen’s adviser was a professor in his doctoral program and a leader in his field who my husband went into business with for a while.  Arnie was the star attraction at dinner parties. We hadn’t seen either of them recently but realizing a person you looked up to and learned from is gone can be unsettling.  It was comforting to know that at long as they were still there thriving we still had lots of time and opportunity to achieve our goals as well.  

A Cruise to Bermuda and Empowerment

Marsha explains how a journey to an island can take you much further than you thought

A few months ago, my husband, Donald and I took a group of friends, family and clients on a luxury cruise to the beautiful island of Bermuda. Donald is a travel agent (Haygood Travel) and I am a career/ life coach and motivational speaker (StepWise Associates). We thought it would be a treat to combine our business expertise and have some fun on the Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas.

Face Food

Ruth Applies Food Directly to Her Face!

Image via Real Moms, Real Views

A hormone rich diet is the natural solution to younger skin.  Forget the creams and miracle potions, you should put healthy food on the inside of your body, but also directly onto you skin.  Here are some facial ingredients that are probably in your refrigerator right now.

Forget Anti-aging Creams, Eat Your Way to Younger Skin

Ruth Advises Healthy Skin Needs Hormones That Are Consumed Not Applied.

During menopause, I noticed my skin changing, and I wanted to do something about it. I had my blood analyzed and discovered I was low on sex hormones. My estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone needed a boost and I gave it to them through bio-identical hormones. I looked 5 years younger! It was a noticeable difference. 

Even now, I look at a woman’s skin, and I think, low estrogen is causing her skin to wrinkle. Here's the foods you can eat that will increase your estrogen without taking the supplement:

Second Lives as Expats in France, Part 2

Maryl meets Maggie Scholefield

Maggie at village water fountain

Maggie's tale of how she wound up in Collobrieres in Provence has little similarity to Nili's roundabout way there. That's what makes our second life journeys so interesting.  They are each so novel!

Maggie Scholefield grew up in England where she studied linguistics.  As a part of her course requirements, she studied abroad in Paris.  Maggie fell in love with the city and decided to stay on.  She was hired as a language instructor for corporate executives being transferred to their company’s office in France.  Soon after she fell in love again, married and had her daughter. But our lives don’t always stay picture perfect, do they?  Maggie divorced and she and her daughter moved back to England where she continued to be employed as a corporate trainer and manager.   Life was good but something was missing.  She cites two experiences that were the turning points in her life.