Keeping calm in Baltimore’s turbulent times

By Margaret Foster
Posted on April 22, 2020

A racing heart, sweaty palms, an incessant urge to check the latest news. It’s normal to feel anxious during the current coronavirus pandemic. Our lives have been disrupted; businesses are shuttered; the stock market has tanked; and no one knows when life will return to normal.  “We’re all having anxiety about the future,” said Dr. Sally Winston, co-founder of the Anxiety... READ MORE

Keeping calm in HoCo’s turbulent times

By Margaret Foster
Posted on April 22, 2020

A racing heart, sweaty palms, an incessant urge to check the latest news. It’s normal to feel anxious during the current coronavirus pandemic. Our lives have been disrupted; businesses are shuttered; the stock market has tanked; and no one knows when life will return to normal.  But there are silver linings to the cloud, according to Indrani Mookerjee, licensed social worker at IME... READ MORE

Keeping calm in Richmond’s turbulent times

By Margaret Foster
Posted on April 08, 2020

A racing heart, sweaty palms, an incessant urge to check the latest news. It’s normal to feel anxious during the current coronavirus pandemic.  Our lives have been disrupted; businesses are shuttered; the stock market has tanked; and no one knows when life will return to normal.  “For people who have always had some underlying anxiety or depression, this [situation] is going to... READ MORE

Keeping calm in D.C.’s turbulent times

By Margaret Foster
Posted on March 31, 2020

A racing heart, sweaty palms, an incessant urge to check the latest news. It’s normal to feel anxious during the current coronavirus pandemic. Our lives have been disrupted; businesses are shuttered; the stock market has tanked; and no one knows when life will return to normal.  “The collective world is developing an anxiety disorder over this [pandemic], and we have to be careful... READ MORE

Bicycling for the health of it

By Robert Friedman
Posted on March 18, 2020

Columbia resident David Zinner will be wearing his knee-length, red-white-and-blue socks on April 21 as he and a group of fellow bikers from Cycle2Health (C2H) pedal to several presidential primary voting sites. “We hope to look a little outrageous so that people will be reminded to get out and vote,” said Zinner, 69, a ride leader for C2H. While the official Howard County primary ... READ MORE

‘Retirees’ are busier than ever

By Simone Ellin
Posted on March 17, 2020

As Winston Churchill once said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” Older adults in Baltimore and beyond are more active than ever, and some are devoting their later years to giving back to their communities. Studies confirm that Americans over 62 are waiting longer than previous generations to retire. What’s more, many who do retire aren’t... READ MORE

Ever-changing artwork, powered by the sun

By Diane York
Posted on March 11, 2020

A friend of mine recently sent me a TED Talks video filmed in Vienna. It displayed gorgeous light studies in vivid shades of green, blue, red and yellow — very fluid, alive and ephemeral. I was amazed to learn they were created from sunlight and that they changed throughout the day following the movement of the earth. I was also surprised to find out that the internationally known... READ MORE

Late-life artist relishes challenge

By Margaret Foster
Posted on March 03, 2020

For most of his life, Allan Akman has dabbled in art. The 77-year-old Rockville resident spent his 33-year career as a military consultant, but on nights and weekends, he painted using watercolors and oils. When he retired in 2009, Akman had a long “bucket list” of things to do, books to read and places to visit. But he became captivated by one of the first items on the list:... READ MORE

Alice McDermott on life and faith

By Robert Friedman
Posted on February 18, 2020

On a gray afternoon this winter, novelist Alice McDermott paused for a pint of Guinness at the Irish Inn in Glen Echo, Maryland, to chat with a reporter about, among other things, life, literature and what it means to be an American. “What makes all Americans Americans, regardless of the hyphenation, is that they are from someone, or are someone, who left [their home], whether for... READ MORE

Changing the ways we think about aging

By Margaret Foster
Posted on February 17, 2020

What does it mean to age “successfully”? Does it mean remaining physically fit and bustling about the gym into our 90s? Being able to volunteer to help others around you? Does it mean you’re retired and surrounded by grandkids? Or simply that you’re happy to still be alive? These are the kinds of questions that concern Tracey Bobrowitz Gendron, associate professor and chair of ... READ MORE