grow older better

Blog

  • Women and their art/life journeys

    This was written by a member of my art group: ORA – after she took a look around the museum and saw what we had hung – and without us there to impede the vision.

    None of us in this group is really young in age – but we are all young at heart.
    Age is no barrier to our, or anyone’s, constantly pushing ourselves in our lives!

    So – continue to Grow Older Better!

    After everyone left our set up at the Oregon Jewish Museum I took one last look around. This is what I saw:

    Diane Fredgant’s brilliance on silk: creation, the red sea, blessings, journeys, explosions of color!

    Sharon Segal’s suitcase series that create memories of travels we’ve had and travels we’ve only dreamed of.

    Laura Joy Fendel takes us to Miriam’s well; a three dimensional fabric piece that makes you want to drink the rich deep blue waters of healing,

    Robin Esterkin’s portraits of women and men that recall another century.

    Sara Harwin’s geometric newest ultrasuede interpretations of hebrew words and their deeper meanings.

    Esther Liberman’s meticulous beadwork (a journey in the making, no doubt): a memorial candle for Miriam,
    and jewelry exquisite beyond words!

    Leslie Elder’s luscious water colors depicting a family’s journey to Ein Gedi, the dance of Miriam, and more.

    Rosana Berdichevsky’s collages that blend words and images and color that bring you comfort- that bring you home.

    Sabina Wohlfeiler has taken us to her childhood as a displaced person in Germany to her arrival in the US, and now to her artistic visions as a contemporary painter.

    Lynn Dorman has created a delightful photographic album of her Exodus from the east coast to the promised land of Portland.

    ….and I’m feeling pretty good about the glass seder plate I created to honor the memory of six women who survived the Holocaust and became role models for me.

    Yes, there is even more than I have described here…..!

    If you’re still reading this, please join us for our opening. Most of us will be there to welcome you.
    Robin, Rosana, and Julie….we wish you all speedy healing.

    Eddy Shuldman

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

  • My upcoming art project – Exodus

    My art group, ORA [http://www.northwestjewishartists.org], was asked to mount a 2 week show at the Oregon Jewish Museum [http://www.ojm.org] and we chose an Exodus theme.

    For months my mind had been a blank on what and how to do this. Then in December I remembered that my son had asked me to write down some tidbits about my life as he was interested in “things I used to do” – so for him – I had started that… He even gave me a sort of title: From Cambria Heights to Portland. In addition, over the last few years I have been sorting through family and my own photos – over 70 years of pictures – yow!

    Then it hit me! It was exactly 40 years between my leaving New York City and arriving in Portland…that could not be a coincidence I said. And voila – From Cambria Heights to Bridgeton Road: my 40 year journey to the promised land – was born!

    At least it the idea was there -but no logistics – except my mind was focused on maps and photos. I yelled “help” to old friends and new for over a month – and suddenly the other day one local friend came up with an idea from a magazine she was looking at – and I then put out a “help” request on a mastermind business call that same night. Guess what – a woman on the call had seen something similar to the magazine idea with an added component – and so the planets aligned for me – the two ideas gelled and I am now in the process of putting the idea onto foam boards that will be hung in the Museum this Sunday for the opening next week!

    There really are no coincidences – I have always been a believer in the idea that everything fits together and this sure is an example… This display is an abridged version of the journey – there are several of us in ORA and the museum is not spacious…so I am thinking of later doing an ebook using many more of my writings and photos and dedicating it to my son…

    Will take photos of the museum project and post them here…

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

  • The birthday came [and went]

    I just had my 68th birthday – and had a birthday party too. I was so glad I decided to change thoughts about doing a party.

    Friends and neighbors came – many bearing food and wine [learned here that asking people not to bring anything falls on deaf ears] so we ate and ate and had some good wines and many deserts. This morning I found some deserts that had gotten placed in safe spots and never made it to the table…Safe is needed as my dog’s mouth reaches all surfaces and even so – he helped himself to some food that got too near the edge of the table : o ) [and given the chewed wine corks I guess he tried those as well]

    So for someone who dislikes her own birthday parties it was worth doing. I felt very lucky not only to be alive but to be surrounded by such neat caring people. Guess I’ll have to plan parties for a few more years to come as the candles were a 6 and an 8 – and someone suggested that I can re-use them for my 86th!

    So here’s to that 86th birthday party!

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

  • Aging Women

    I have begun to volunteer at a local community radio station [KBOO] and will be involved in the programming for International Woman’s Day on March 8th. Although first observed in the United States, it has become pretty unknown here…You can read about the day here: http://www.internationalwomensday.com/default.asp.

    At the brainstorming meeting we all put in thoughts as to the day of programming and how it might proceed. Many topics had to do with the fact that women are most often the caretakers of children, family, aging parents, pets, etc. But when women age, they are relegated to nursing homes where they are attended to by underpaid women in under staffed facilities and basically forgotten.

    Back in October I was on a program at the station discussing Women and Power. I won’t repeat my comment her as it was an hour long show. But my basic premise is/was that women have power which is why men have trouble allowing women to express that power and feel a need to suppress ALL women.

    In the USA we have fewer women in government that most other nations. And from my point of view the women in power feel they have to act like men in order to retain their power. So they do not help in the ways that women are best at and that affects the aging of women in our society.

    This discussion on Women and Power will continue on January 25 – this coming Friday at 6 PM PST [on KBOO]. You can listen via radio if in Oregon or online anywhere in the world by going to http://www.kboo.org and clicking listen live at the top of the page.

    I will talk about our current election scenario as we have a woman running for president and she is subjected to all manner of nasty comments, the death of Bhutto, aging and lack of power – and as listeners call in, other topics will be generated.

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

  • Back on Track

    This year started with my being so busy I not only did not exercise I did not post to this blog…

    I am a firm believer in do as I say – not as I do : – )

    It’s much easier to be the one dispensing advice than it is to take advice – something I figured out a while ago.

    I was trying to help a friend with some marketing ideas and some other friends with weight management issues.
    What did I tell them? DO DO DO…but while advising them to DO – I was not DOing my own stuff!

    So this week I am back to doing – went to the health club, did more working on my own business and art project and got some mess under control.

    My art group will have a show at the Oregon Jewish Museum in February and the theme is Exodus…. I decided to make mine my own story of my 40 years between leaving New York and arriving in Portland. Not sure yet how it will be displayed – or even what exactly I will display – but the 40 year journey seemed more than a simple coincidence.

    In the last few weeks I have been sorting through decades of photos – family photos, some of my many trips, different places I have lived, pets I have had – and some of this trip through photo-nostalgia is sad…some happy…and most amazing!

    You know those photos and slides you never labeled because you were so sure you would always remember that person? that place? that flower? that tree? that river? mountain? waterfall?

    Guess what? Even when a date is stamped on the slide – I am not too sure where it was taken or of what….The older photos from my early years into my teens are of people no longer recall – even when there is a name associated with the picture.

    Some photos I have were taken of and by my mother – many from before she was married and some from after. [As I was the photobug I got the box and albums of her photos.] Now I wish I had sat down with her and had her recall more about her life…she lived to be 95 but I never spoke with her with the photos in hand – even when she was visiting for weeks on end. We talked about it – but it always seemed here would be time to do this – at some other time….

    The moral of all the above? DO and do it now…

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,