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Katrina Kenison, author of The Gift of an Ordinary Day, put together this moving video about motherhood and about recognizing the value of those fleeting, “normal” moments which end up being the most cherished memories.

Watch the video and share your feelings with us!

Filed under: Boomers

Paula Span has received another great review for When the Time Comes!

Read the article here on Silver Planet!

The article ends with this great quotation from the reviewer:

“Thank you, Paula. I’m going to give a copy of your book to all my children. ”

Filed under: Boomers

Exciting news!

The National MS Society has named Gail Blanke’s wonderful book Throw Out Fifty Things as a finalist for their books-for-a-better-life award!

Filed under: Boomers

Usually when we multi-task, we feel very productive because we think that we’re saving time and “killing two birds with one stone.” However yesterday The New York Times ran an article (here) about multi-tasking that suggests multi-tasking isn’t as great as we think it is.

According to the article, productivity significantly decreased in adults who were multitasking. As Dr. Christakis put it, “The truth is you don’t really multitask, you just think you do; the brain can’t process two high-level cognitive things.”  In other words, when we multi-task we are doing each task less competantly and less efficiently than we would if we were focussing solely on that task. So instead of doing one task quickly and then another task quickly, we are really doing both tasks more slowly and carelessly. When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. How many times have you put your keys or glasses down while talking on the phone only to find that you have no idea where you put them?

But the article goes on to say that multitasking may not actually be a problem for the generation that has grown up texting-while-walking, and that all that extra media stimulation has likely made for greater mental dexterity. As Dr. Christakis puts it, “Parents are digital immigrants; children are digital natives.”

Read the article and let us know what you think!

Could the constant texting/calling/surfing-the-web be beneficial to younger generations, or do you think  it’s just a distraction, plain and simple?

Filed under: Boomers

It has been over two weeks since I dropped my youngest son off at college, so I have gotten over the initial void I felt everyday and the teariness that overcame me as I walked by his empty room. 

But, it is funny how difficult it is to let go of the daily news blasts from your children, or the knowledge of who they’re with and what they’re doing.  I find that as long as I know where he is (or should be), like a class or crew practice, I can have a visual in my head of how he’s doing.  It’s the other times–the weekends and evenings–where I really feel the need to find out where he is so I can imagine his comings and goings.

 I think these obsessions/neuroses I have are just an outgrowth of survival of the species.  I think that they are hardwired into mothers as a way to protect their young.  So I’m not embarrassed by them.  But I do need to figure out how to control them, especially because my kids are pretty darn safe (I hope), at a good college, and don’t need me to worry about them every day.  In fact, I think they’d be horrified if they knew I did so!

One way I know I can calm myself down is by reading Katrina Kenison’s words in THE GIFT OF AN ORDINARY DAY.  I’ve been working with Katrina for the last couple of years on this book and I have to say her emails with draft chapters got me through two kids’  college applications processes.  She reminds us that our children do not need our hovering or our controlling them when they’re teens. What they need is for us to have confidence in them, knowing they may fail, but that they’ll be okay.  And, ultimately they’ll succeed on their own and that will give them the confidence they need.  They’ll figure it out.  In fact, a beautiful essay from the book will be excerpted in the October issue of Family Circle. It is about her 9th grade son trying out for the basketball team and the heartbreak, but ultimately success and self-knowledge he earned from that challenge.

I will reread another chapter tonight and take strength from Katrina’ insights about letting go, and about finding beauty, grace and transformation in the ordinary days of our life…and maybe on Saturday I’ll call my sons!

Filed under: Boomers

The 44th President of the United States turns 48 today.  Born in 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, he came into the world at the tail end of the Baby Boom.  During the 2008 campaign, much was made of the fact that he was younger than the other candidates.  But did you know that he is actually not the youngest man ever to be sworn in?  A bit of trivia: According to Wikipedia, Obama is the 5th youngest person to be inaugurated as President.  Teddy Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and Ulysses S. Grant, who were 42, 43, 46 & 5 months, and 46 & 10 months respectively at the times of their first inaugurations, beat him out for the title.

Filed under: Boomers • Fun • History • News

It’s here! The 40^th Anniversary of what some of us would consider our most memorable summer. Whether you were there to slog through the muddy fields yourself, or you heard about it from friends, it’s hard to forget Woodstock and August of 1969.

In celebration of the good times that summer and all those that have followed, we present to you a small collection of sites and events that might help you to revisit that weekend:

The original Woodstock documentary was released in 1970, and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1996.

A new film called “TAKING WOODSTOCK” is set for release in late August. Visit the IMDB website for more information and to view trailers for the film.

NEWSEUM WOODSTOCK EXHIBIT:

If you happen to be near DC on Saturday Aug. 15, join former New York Times journalist Bernard Collier, as he talks about what made Woodstock newsworthy.

Share your own memories of Woodstock with us! What do you think was so unique about the event? Were you forced to stay at home or did you head off with some friends to camp out in the fields? Have you been to anything like it since?

Filed under: Boomers • Fun • History • Media

Think Baby Boomers are slowing down? Not a chance!

In fact,  Baby Boomers currently have the highest rate of starting a new business of any age group in the U.S.

U.S. News and World Report published an article the 0ther day stating that “over the past decade, the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity was among people between the ages of 55 and 64,” and that “about 21 percent of all workers who change careers after age 51 are self-employed at their new jobs.”  It goes on to say that after making the decision to start a business, “entrepreneurial baby boomers need to pick a place to set up shop.”  Here at Springboard we took particular interest because, frankly, we couldn’t agree more!

(Check out the U.S. News and World Report article here)

While the article focusses on great places for entrepreneurial boomers to retire, we feel that the real expert on the subject is our author Barbara Corcoran, real estate guru, who wrote an entire book devoted to the subject of where to “live your life” called Nextville. Not only does Corcoran’s book include a quiz to help you figure out where and how you want to live, but it breaks each location down by cost, weather, median age, and local activities. Nextville is actually about to come out in paperback, and includes a new forward by Corcoran about how to survive the current (read: tough!) real estate market.

For more info, check out Barbara Corcoran’s website directly:

http://barbaracorcoran.com/

Filed under: Boomers • Media

Every generation has a war that marks and shapes the years of its coming-of-age. For today’s young people, it is Iraq.  Before that, it was the Persian Gulf.  For those who grew up in the ’60’s and 70’s, it was undoubtedly Vietnam.

In his poem, “Facing It,” celebrated writer and Vietnam veteran Yusef Komunyakaa recalls a visit to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.  His language paints a powerful picture of a man whose memories of war have been engraved onto him as permanently as the names carved on the wall.

Facing It
by Yusef Komunyakaa

My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn’t,
dammit: No tears.
I’m stone. I’m flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night
slanted against morning. I turn
this way–the stone lets me go.
I turn that way–I’m inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke.
I touch the name Andrew Johnson;
I see the booby trap’s white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman’s blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird’s
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet’s image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I’m a window.
He’s lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she’s brushing a boy’s hair.

(source: The Academy of American Poets Website)

* * *

More Poems About the Vietnam War:

• “At the Vietnam Memorial” by George Bilgere
• “Advent 1966″ by Denise Levertov
• “Vietnam” by Michael Collier
• “Driving through Minnesota During the Hanoi Bombings” by Robert Bly
• “The Asians Dying” by W.S. Merwin
• “Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weigl

Famous Poems About Other Wars, Past and Present:

• “Here, Bullet” by Brian Turner [Iraq War]
• “The Death of the Ball Turrett Gunner” by Randall Jarrell [WWII]
• “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen [WWI]
• “The Blue and the Gray” by Francis Miles Finch [Civil War]
• “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson [Crimean War]
• “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow [Revolutionary War]

Filed under: Boomers • History • Literature

Check out this great article by Paula Span about the unexpected joys of taking care of elderly parents! It was featured in The Washington Post last week.

Filed under: Boomers