As lifespans continue to lengthen, it is inevitable that people will have the opportunity to do more. It is also likely that they will need to work longer. This will likely lead to the emergence of new life stages, as happened with teenagers and retirees which were both 20th century creations.

"She may never walk or talk again.." Those were the words of the brain surgeon when discussing options for my girlfriend.

I’m looking forward to reading David Robson’s new book, “The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Transform Your Life,” that he excerpted in a recent The Guardian article. This book follows ample research done by well-respected academics like Ellen Langer and Becca Levy, demonstrating how reframing from a negative to a positive can add more than a half-dozen years to your life. For the record, those are happy years, given the mindset shift.

“Very early in the new year, I will turn sixty, an age I never imagined I would see. My older friends told me what a big deal forty would be, and then fifty, but neither of them felt like a big deal to me. Forty felt like permission; fifty felt like letting go of whatever filters remained. Forty and fifty were signposts, or maybe toll booths, on the road to becoming increasingly okay with who I am.

Living part-time in the American Southwest liberates me. The roads are wide open, the “legal” speed limit touches 75, and, let’s face it, I like to drive fast.

Our dog Magnificent had a rough go of it after the birth of our son. This whiny and smelly new creature—whom we endearingly call Shep—was interesting to him at first, and Magnificent steadfastly tended to his every cry and kept close guard whenever anyone new ventured near him.

So Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King would have been 93 years today had he not been assassinated. As an African-American woman raised in California at a particular time, I grew up, first noticing, then celebrating the legacy of the renowned civil rights, global peace advocate and spiritual-faith based leader.

I remember when I first read this article in "The Atlantic" seven years ago. I was shocked by it as both of my parents were older than 75, and I didn’t want them leaving their bodily form anytime soon.

Rene Descartes once opined, "I think, therefore I am." Four hundred years later, we’re awash in thinking and knowledge, but often missing some other foundational human qualities. While there are all kinds of other words Descartes could have used beyond "think" (breathe, feel, make love), "think" is still the king of the hill.

Your soulmate might not be your best friend or your spouse. For that matter, you may have multiple soulmates. You ought to feel blessed, not disloyal, for that gift.