The Portal to Boomeranger World

Moving and Grooving to the Oldies with Richard Simmons!

Richard Simmons has always made me giggle. He is unabashed in his out there personality AND his committment to health and fitness. He has teamed up with Ocean Spray to promote their new cranberry drink and get another go round for himself. Well, I say good on him!! He is certainly  a boomer icon and a leader in the fitness movement--speaking to ordinary women and helping them with a model of supportive man that may have been missing in their lives.

It is hard to do anything in life if you are totally on your own. So Richard good for you and good for Ocean Spray cranberry juice which has been a life saver for many women suffering from yeast infections. 

Rock on Richard!

Get Your Glow On: The IGO Energetics of Health

The National Academy of Sciences released the following study yesterday that should have us boomerangers going on the personal alert. While policy, economics, health care delivery, and funding are critical, what each of us can do is get our Individual Glow On! Our IGO is the next step in bringing forth the inner light--this is the energetics of vabooming. Those health energetics are composed of our heartminds, our bodies, our community connections and spirit, our family connections, our intimate love relations, our connection to the earth, and our committment to our inner light. Ultimately we will all turn back into the stardust from which we were born, but I for one want that to be a long long time from now. I have too much to say and do. Too many people who I have yet to meet and become friends with, too many parts of the world yet to see, cultures to experience, delicious foods to munch, creative notions to manifest, love to give and receive, spaces to explore...

What I found most disturbing about the following report was the certainty that most 65+ folk will be ill with some sort of chronic condition and taking some sort of medication. Longevity studies for other parts of the world show that diet, excercise, gardening, community and family connection and some sort of spiritual practice--whether it is regular hugging of trees--my preference--or more orthodox organized spiritual practice are the key ingredients to a long, healthful, productive, and happy life.

Remember that the root word of DISEASE is EASE. It is not health. Ease is the opposite of 'dis'ease. Ease is the state of balance which the human organism constantly seeks--that is the state of homeostasis. Ease comes from lowering stress, moving, eating less and better, sleeping, connecting, bringing forth your unique brillance, laughing, loving and being loved and more.

Clips from the full report: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 14, 2008 Health Care Work Force Too Small, Unprepared For Aging Baby Boomers; Higher Pay, More Training, And Changes In Care Delivery Needed To Avert Crisis WASHINGTON — As the first of the nation's 78 million baby boomers begin reaching age 65 in 2011, they will face a health care work force that is too small and woefully unprepared to meet their specific health needs, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. The report, Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce, calls for bold initiatives starting immediately to train all health care providers in the basics of geriatric care and to prepare family members and other informal caregivers, who currently receive little or no training in how to tend to their aging loved ones. Medicare, Medicaid, and other health plans should pay higher rates to boost recruitment and retention of geriatric specialists and care aides, said the committee that wrote the report. The committee set a target date of 2030 — the year by which all baby boomers will have turned 65 or older — for the necessary reforms to take place. 'Impending Crisis' Work Force Shortage Threatens Quality of Care All Providers Should Be Competent in Geriatric Care Higher Salaries, Financial Incentives Needed Family Members, Other Informal Caregivers Need Training Medicare Hinders Delivery of Quality Care Copies of Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce are available from the National Academies Press; tel. 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242 or on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu.  Additional information on the report can be found at http://www.iom.edu/agingAmerica.  Reporters may obtain a copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed above).  In addition, a podcast of the public briefing held to release this report is available at http://national-academies.org/podcast. Contacts: Christine Stencel, Senior Media Relations Officer Alison Burnette, Media Relations Assistant Office of News and Public Information 202-334-2138; e-mail: news@nas.edu Full Report  Project Web Site  Committee Members  Podcast  Photos  Book Cover

This Little Light of Mine: Inspiring Your Inner Light

Major religions all over the world have a common theme--inspiration for letting your light shine. New Age thought is no different. But all these belief systems can sometimes not peel back the dark veils that cloud the soul and prevent the unique brillance that each person has from shining forth.

Boomerangers are confronting this dilemma in huge numbers. As an overall cohort, we are some 80,000,000 strong. As the leading edge of us approach 60 and the prospect (for some) and the spector (for others) of retirement looms, the prospect of what will I do with myself also looms. My answer is reFirement, not reTirement.

What do I mean by reFirement? re Firement is that wonderful moment when you begin to let your inner light blaze again. I believe that every person comes into this world with her or his own unique brillant flame blazing inside. Many influences damp down that blaze--sometimes parental disapproval crushes the flame.

Such was the case of my former uncle-in-law who wished with all his heart to become an opera singer. His father forbade it and instead he became a lawyer--and a very unhappy one at that. After his first wife died, his children grown, and he remarried, he began singing regularly again. And until his death in his late 80's he gave concerts several times a year. He had the talent to have become an excellent singer, had he had the training as a young man. As it was, he was a good Sunday singer. But most importantly, when he let his inner light stream forth through his singing, he was radiant and he gave joy to many.

That joy was a gift to the postive energy of the world.

Sandwich Generation Pt. 4: Care for the Caregivers

A critical issue for caregivers is maintaining their own stamina and health. How can women who are the bulk of caregivers make it through without collapsing? And how can women who are socialized to care for everyone else first, begin to care for themselves? Gail Sheehy, author, and Jane Bryant Quinn, columnist, speaking on a recently televised panel in connection with WGBH's current documentary, "Caring for Your Parents" both noted that caregivers need (to) care for themselves. This is an issue that is critical for both women and men.

In the coming months, I will be discussing a range of methods and ways to care for yourself. And as August 8, 2008 approaches and vaboomer.com blossoms into a larger website offering books, music, art as well as advice and resources, there will be a greater array of means for self-care.

Look for inspiring books such as "What Will You Do 'Til You Live to 100?" and "Sixty Tips for a Sensational Second Sixty After Sixty." Look for enlivening original R and B, jazz and rock by backbone artists who are boomeranging. Look for enrichening teleconferences led by knowledgble experts. But most of all always look inward to that flame that is beginning to burn brighter and brighter--aiming to blaze forth.

Why 8/8/08 to expand the site? 8/8/08 is the most auspicious day in the entire 12-year lunar ccyle and a day that will not come again for 100 years. As much as I think I have a possibility to live to 100, I don't think I will live to 163--but hey who knows--there are more things Horatio...

Next week, I'll be writing about nourishing that inner flame.