Becoming the Best U: Christmas stress and finding a new normal
By Nancy Plummer, Columnist, The Times
Question: Christmas is my least favorite holiday. My parents are divorced and both got remarried. My sister spends Christmas with her husband’s family. Me, I just want to get through the day. I hate the drama the comes with it all. Is it terrible if I just stay home and ignore the day?
Jane – Berwyn
Answer: You’re not alone. Although many people say...
Becoming the Best U: Advice on exercise, gifts and self care
By Nancy Plummer, Columnist, The Times
Question: I stopped exercising during Covid, and I want to get back into shape, but don’t know where to begin. Do you have any suggestions?
Dana – West Chester
Answer: I always tell my clients who are getting back into exercising to turn it into a social experience, so they look forward to it. Depending on your budget, physical limitations, and time allowance,...
ReFirement at Any Age: Good Thoughts. Good Words. Good Deeds
By Gail Supplee Tatum, Columnist, The Times
This message is very fitting for this time of year and one that should be practiced every single day. Sounds like the perfect recipe for a fulfilling life, doesn’t it?
If we have good thoughts, they will form into good words, which can be put into motion as good deeds. Sound easy? It’s not. It takes a conscience effort. If we view it and practice it as...
Becoming the Best U
Editor’s Note: Nancy Plummer was a columnist for us some years back on personal development, but due to health issues was forced to take a sabbatical. We are delighted to announce her return on a monthly basis with a new format.
By Nancy Plummer, Columnist, The Times
Question: About a year ago, when I had a routine appointment at my primary doctor’s office, I noticed the staff and doctor...
ReFirement at Any Age: Add Refirement to the dictionary
By Gail Supplee Tatum, Columnist, The Times
Hundreds of words are added to the dictionary every year. Some make sense and others are downright outrageous, in my opinion.
Having said that, there are some words that should absolutely be added, in order to adhere with the current state of what is happening in the world and how society is altering their lifestyle to meet it. I’m suggesting that refire...
ReFirement at Any Age: Turning the calendar to a new decade
By Gail Supplee Tatum, Columnist, The Times
I can’t believe I’ve been knocking around on this earth for seventy years. Where has the time gone? I know that’s what everybody says! Being a Septuagenarian is still sinking in, quite slowly….
I am sharing my personal perspective, with the notion that many people turning a new decade, or maybe even a new year, might feel the same way.
The only decade...
Inner Nature: Natives vs. Non-Natives
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
Now that gardening season is underway, gardeners are drawn to plant sales and nurseries like a bee to honey. The general advice is to shun “invasives” and “exotic” plants, selecting instead “native”” plants to support local fauna. But what makes a plant, animal, fungus, a native? What is the generational number for drawing the demarcation line of from...
Inner Nature: The medicine/poison cabinet
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
We seldom think of the home or medicine cabinet as a storehouse of poisons, but that is what they are. From the very food we eat, the sprays we clean with, to the drugs we take, the chemical activity of – um, chemicals – can have diabolical effects upon biological systems. In this article, I will explore a few of the drugs we use to keep ourselves healthy, and...
ReFire at any age: Independence Day. What does it mean to you?
By Gail Supplee Tatum, Columnist, The Times
Have you ever really thought about the significance of what this day means?
We so often look at holidays like Memorial Day and Independence Day as days off from work, to play and have fun, which is okay but we all need to take a moment to celebrate in a deeper way.
The word independence, by definition, means freedom from the control or influence of others....
Inner Nature: The Otherworldly Octopus
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
I was watching a male ruby-throated hummingbird at my feeder the other day. Hummingbirds fascinate me. Besides being charismatic and heart-stoppingly beautiful, they are feisty. I watched him drink his fill and then sit on a nearby branch to play dog-in-the-manger, chasing away other hummingbirds who dared to try to take what he didn’t want. Their speed, their...
