We interrupt this blog post to bring you The Continuous LIfe

Painting by Mark Strand

Does it sometime feel like life is repeating itself? You load the dishwasher; you unload the dishwasher. You put your makeup on in the morning; you wash it off at night. You lose your keys, your glasses, your phone; you find your keys, your glasses, your phone. You write a blog post; you write another blog post . . . Sometimes the continuous life feels like numbing monotony, other times reassuring predictability. One thing we know at Second Lives Club, it is important every so often to stop and appreciate what we have as well as figure out what we can do better. So, after a GenFab dinner with other midlife bloggers tonight –(website launching soon, bookmark this link)—Maryl and I are going to take a few days off and a hard look at what we’re doing here. How’s that for a cosmic question? But first a favorite poem from Mark Strand to sustain you while we're away.

Diet for a Second Life: The Best Protein

By Food Blogger Ruth Gantman

As we age, our digestive systems are taxed. It’s best to eat simple and clean. Clinical research and author Dr. Neal Barnard suggests we eat no more than four different foods at any one sitting to reduce stress on the digestive system. We, as Americans, are saturated in offerings of animal protein and, according to Colin Campbell’s 30 year definitive China Study, the best source of protein that matches our own would actually be human flesh. So Jonathan Swift’s 18th century social satire A Modest Proposal not only would solve the economic problems of the Irish lower class, but also has a nutritional base. (Gasp)

Maryl Found: An Extra Hour in Her Day

I recently attended a seminar titled, The Art of Less Doing, which is about how to be more productive and spend less time doing fewer things.  There were a number of automation tools proffered that could take the rest of the year to integrate into my daily or weekly agendas.  So I started out slowly with a change that I knew about but needed someone standing over me to do.  As a result I estimate I got an hour back each day.

Second Look: Amour's Emmanuelle Riva

She wowed audiences in her first move role in Hiroshima Mon Amor and thrilled moviegoers no less in her most recent in Amour. Her breakout performance, directed by Alain Renais, was in l959; fifty-one years later, Michael Haneke chose her to play Anna, a dignified music teacher and devoted wife who is mercilessly debilitated after a stroke. For that performance, Emmanuelle Riva received the Oscar nomination for Best Actress. If she wins on February 27, 2013—the night of the awards ceremony and her 86th birthday, she will be the oldest person in any competitive acting category to take home the Oscar. (For the record, Christopher Plummer, 83, won last year for his role in Beginners.) By any measures, Emmanuelle Riva, who grew up in a small village in eastern France where she worked as a seamstress before she traveled to Paris to study acting, is a star with an exceptional career but she hates both words and applies neither to herself.

Maryl commits: To New Year Results Not Resolutions

 Here we are feet back at the starting line, with a clean slate in hand, heart in the right place, head on straight ready to start the yearly cycle over again. At least in our second lives we don’t have to repeat the folly of our past New Year’s resolutions that may have pictured a slimmer, richer, smarter, more caring and newly promoted vision of ourselves but didn’t quite capture our innermost dreams and desires. Whether our goals were honestly honed or not, barely half of us will still be working toward them halfway through the year. But I’ve got three new tactics to beat those odds for 2013. 

Caryl takes: Dr.Frank Lipman's Two-Week Detox

Everything you need--minus cat and candle 

Gwyneth Paltrow isn't doing it this year but I am. She's concentrating on the Superfoods but I'm taking the cleanse. I  start this Monday, which for me marks the first day of MY new year. It takes me a couple of weeks to get back my equilibrium after the hullabaloo of the holidays. By the second week of January, I am as calm as I am going to get.  And, my desire to detox and my willpower to reboot my body is at its peak.

Shake ingredients come in packets to mix with water.  

I am a I am a believer in cleanses as long as they're not the flavor of the month kind. Remember the Master Cleanse that was made up of homemade lemonade, maple syrup, water, and Cayenne pepper? Crazy, huh?

Maryl got: Arm Candy in her Stocking

Actually I got two bracelets in my stocking this year and another as a gift from Caryl (along with a leopard tunic to match). I have always liked receiving jewelry for Christmas and my husband has nicely obliged over the years. Specifically rings were my real delight, and he took several practice runs before the actual engagement ring showed up one Christmas morn. But something's happened with my penchant for rings. 

Caryl pleads: "Give me a light" to see clearly in 2013

Three days into 2013 and already I am feeling like the "man who stood at the gate of the year".  Do you know what I am talking about? Can you guess who asked: "Give me a light that I may tread into the unknown"? The final months of 2012 were bleak with a devastating natural disaster here on the East Coast, unspeakable crimes at home (Newtown, Ct.) and abroad (New Delhi, India) and my own dark night of the soul. Following Superstorm Sandy, my 83-year-old friend in Cambridge, England sent me a poem made famous by George VI in his Christmas speech  in 1937 (and later in the movie "The King's Speech) . Darkness abounded that season as well. The British empire was not only on the cusp of a new year but another world war. The king, hardly a compelling speaker, quoted from a poem that his daughter, then princess Elizabeth, had given him.  The poem was titled "God Knows", and it was written by Minnie Louise Hawkins, who taught economics in the first half of the of the  20th century.

Maryl sings: The Aging Rocker Blues

Roger Daltry (Don Emmert/AFP/Getty)

Did you catch “12-12-12 The Concert for Sandy Relief” live from Madison Square Garden? I was reminded of “Live Aid”, a benefit concert in 1985 to save the starving children in Africa and the original one, “The Concert for Bangladesh”, in 1971 organized by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, recently deceased at 92. The 12-12-12 concert was less global and dire in the crisis it was addressing but there was some overlap with the venues and the performers.  The latter were naturally a bit weathered but still strutting their stuff. And apparently that’s what some of the Twitter buzz was about… 

Caryl appreciates: Season's Greetings

I don't send Christmas cards but I love getting them.  I especially love the family picture cards, watching the kids age each year, the settings change, the clothes no longer matching or even color-coordinated.  In our second lives, if you are like me, you are probably getting pictures of friends' grandkids now. (Thanks, Jane for the sweet picture of Eliza May and Will on their baptismal day. And, Annette, great to see three generations still hanging out with Mickey and Minnie.)  Though I am less fond of holiday letters, I loved my high school friend Mary Beth's this year. To be accurate,  it's a Christmas email, not a letter.  Nevertheless, in this year's missive, she told of the recovery of her husband Jerry who was stricken with a fightening illness affecting both his body and his mind this fall.  The email recounts his remarkable recovery that enabled him to return home for the holidays after several challenging months in rehabilitation.  "Believe in miracles," Rip (her nickname) concludes. 

But there is one card I look forward to every year with the greatest anticipation . . .

Caryl exits: Out of Africa (and rediscovers 7 reasons why she travels--and you should too.)

I’m home after 10 days and 11 flights (I feel like Hillary Clinton!) in Africa.  The trip was exhilarating: Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam and Arusha in Tanzania, and Capetown and Franschhoek in South Africa.  And yes, Maryl, I did do my Christmas shopping!  But even as fast moving as the trip was—it was more like seeing the trailer than the movie—it reminded me why I love to travel and why it's always worth the pre- and post-vacation stresses, even at this time of year.  I’ll tell you more about what I saw and what I learned in a future post (think 2013!) but here are 7 persuasive reasons (from bigger thinkers than myself) to leave your comfort zone:

1.    All journeys  have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware. --Martin Buber

Maryl shifts: To Buying a Christmas Dress

Outnet.com:  Sonia Rykiel, Vince, Reed Krakoff, Marc Jacobs

I don’t know about you but I never leave time to buy myself something to wear for the holidays.  Maybe you’ve poked around in the Misses department in between buying a sweater for your husband and another pair of gloves for your sister.  If so, then you’ve noticed the racks full of dresses and most on sale.  But have you carved out some time to shop for a Christmas dress in between the endless gift buying, cooking and decorating?  We should all take an afternoon off, grab a friend or not, have a nice lunch and try on some dresses.  And I think I’ve rediscovered the style that will make this easy and painless.