There’s that odd and uncomfortable space between your current life and the life you’re still chasing — and sometimes even between who you are and who you know you could be. And I don’t mean you’re ready to trade in your life as a GenXer, corporate baddie, whose kids are grown and almost flown, to become Dr. Jean Grey from Marvel. Able to read people’s minds or control their thoughts. While that does sound delicious, it’s not the direction I’m headed in. I’m talking about that gap, that itch for the ‘things’ you continue to want to grab a hold of and run with, to stop it from slipping away.…
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Is Your Bucket List Staring You Down? Try This Fun, Easy, and Realistic One Now
The Thimble List! Your Shortcut to Life’s Magical Moments. I recently scrolled past a Pinterest blog post, one of those surprisingly good ones, and it stuck with me. A woman in her mid-40s admitted she’d only completed maybe 10–15% of her bucket list. She didn’t share the whole thing, but most of it was travel-related. One entry really got me: Meet up with old Uni friends I haven’t seen in three decades. Well, mine hadn’t been that long, but still, it had been too long. And I meant to save the post, of course. Didn’t. Can’t find it now. Bloody annoying. But the funny thing is, by complete coincidence, I’d…
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How To Easily Get 100 Grams of Protein a Day
Without Those Chalky-Tasting Bars You Pretended to Like And all you really want to nosh on are more carbs. And by ‘you’, I definitely mean me. I’m just a grown, “Big Age” woman trying to do all the ‘things’ in my second chapter. I keep active regularly, but I’m not training for the 2032 Olympics, and yet somehow, I need a billion grams of protein a day to do this without my entire body breaking down like a rust-bucket banger. OK, maybe it’s 100 grams. What’s a few extra zeros between friends? An initial Google led me to the discovery of protein-rich ice cream, and me wondering how? Does the…
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We’re Gen X and We’re Not New–We’re Just ‘AI Social’ New
Not too late either. Just starting from experience. We were here before Google. Before TikTok, Instagram, all the ‘GPTs,’ and every one of those terrifying “Just wait for it…” jump-scare Reels. We made the wickedest, flyest mixtapes. Ensuring the room was more silent than a baby gnat’s fart while holding down the clunky play + record buttons simultaneously, then easing off the pause with ninja-like precision. Today’s young’uns can’t imagine that kind of timing or level of dedication. From Mixtapes to Memes: Digital Life and AI Lingo After 40. Amazingly, we survived the plethora of disks. Floppy, hard, and CD. And no one could tell us that a strategic blow…
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How a Better To-Do List Keeps Morning Stress Away
Why the Right Planning Matters (But Not Too Much). This might be a long one, bear with me. But it’s a good’un, and I wanted to be super clear. I’m a big planner, sometimes an over planner. But learning how a better to-do list keeps morning stress away has changed the way I start, and run, my day. And it’s not because I love it so much, that I can’t bear not to do it, umm… no, it’s because I need a solid focus for my day. Every day. Living a rigid life is not for me at all but when I wake up and am getting ready for the…
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Small Actions, Big Results: Celebrate What’s Really Working
Yes, I’m looking dead at you. When was the last time you actually celebrated something you did right? And I mean all those wins that you wrote off as small and didn’t even acknowledge. When you think about them, there’s so many, so while it’s unrealistic to hire a confetti ceiling net to drop each time, or pop some Veuve—who’s got that kind of money? You still need to pause long enough to say, “Hey, that was good! I did that! I did that!” Insert seat-shimmy dance. Here’s the sciencey (yes, that’s a word… kind of) truth to it. Big or small, your brain doesn’t care one bit. Every one of those wins…
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Juneteenth: Learning & Celebrating Black Freedom in the U.S.
Today is not just another Thursday. It’s Juneteenth. A day that marks freedom finally getting to the enslaved Black Americans in Galveston, Texas, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Two and a half years! Let that sink in for more than a moment. So when you hear people say it’s a celebration, now you understand. I was born and raised in London, England, to parents with Ghanaian roots, so learning about the reason for this national American holiday brought both horror but ultimately joy in the power of Black Americans. Through my discovery, and it’s been over some years, I found Juneteenth was actually one of many…
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How to Find Light in Diabolical Times
(A note from Irene B.) These past days, or months, for many of us, it’s been almost impossible not to feel overwhelmed: fear, anger, rage… add anything else to that list, with what’s happening here. It’s touching everyone and is devastating on too many levels. The uncertainty. The constant “what’s coming next?”, rattles me daily. And I don’t have the answers. Yet, I still have to believe the good will outweigh the bad… at some point. And can that ‘some point‘ be right the hell now… please?! Even so, I keep moving forward, because I (we) have to. The world is still a big, beautiful, but deeply complicated place. We have to hold…
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Last Bell, Big Feels: And High School’s Done-Done
Catching-self moment, part deux. This time, it was my baby cakes graduating from high school, and let me tell you… the pride? It hit different. More pride, more happiness, but also a deeper sting with the true end of an era: no more kiddos in school. University feels different. Yes, I am (and was) ready to be done, but in that second as she crossed the stage, with me screaming her name, it was more than a whoosh of feelings. It was a whole shift. The weather showed its entire arse, and not in a cute way, but by raining sideways, even hitting us under the covered outdoor stage. Then…
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Blink and, Poof, They’re Grown: Milestones and Mumma Pride
I had to catch myself again. Mid-moment, thought, and proud mumma tears. My oldest just graduated from university, and whew… that feeling? It’s bigger than words. The kind that makes you stop and say, “Wait, how in the heck did we get here already? Who approved this! I want names!” Even the rain held off long enough to let us soak in the sun and snap a few outdoor photos, proof that the universe knew this was a moment worth capturing. And yes, I wore those toe-pinching, open-toe joints in the drizzle because even this mum showed up to celebrate her baby. Rain or not, we were going to shine.…
