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Martha McClellan
Position: Authentic Aging

Spring cleaning or death cleaning?

It’s not spring cleaning anymore. Now it’s death cleaning. A new book, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter, ...

Looking at our responsibilities as we age

Shouldn’t our responsibilities lessen as we age? I’m thinking we did our careers, we did our families, now we can relax. Well, that doesn’t seem to be the reality many of us are experiencin...

Had any fender-benders lately?

I’ve recently experienced two near-collisions with cars. This has shaken me up! The first was walking to my car in the Kroegers parking lot when an SUV came barreling right at me...

New year, new book, new invitations ...

A teacher at a retreat on living and dying I recently attended has written a book that has captured my attention. The title is The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Te...

Devastating fire drives home the impermanence of things

Barn’s burnt down – Now I can see the moon. – Mizuta Masahide My daughter-in-law’s parents’ house burned to the ground during the recent fires in ...

As we age, crossing lines with grace and even joy

There we were, in the Rio Grande Gorge watching the eclipse, the solar flares and being in the quiet stillness of the moment. “Do you hear the canyon wren?” she says. In that lif...

In death, Verlena showed us how to live a rich life

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” – Verlena Collentine, 2017 Reflecting on Verlena’s life for the last time publicly, I particularly note two things, aside...

The autumn of Verlena’s life

Editor’s note: This column was written before Verlena Collentine’s death Aug. 16 from ovarian cancer. It is the third of a four-part series on her life and death. The first two articles ...

This summer, this moment in time for Verlena

I caught up with Verlena Collentine recently to check in and see how she’s doing. She is the woman who has terminal ovarian cancer and has stopped all medical intervention as of ...

Wisdom is one of few things that doesn’t diminish with age

One advantage of getting old (besides senior discounts) is that we are supposed to be wise, at least wiser than in our younger years. After all the experiences, ups and downs, ac...

I’m making decisions about disposing of my corpse

She called it a cemetery crawl. We were to drive to all the cemeteries in the area and decide where we wanted to be buried. Both of us are interested in green burial, burial into...

Nearing the end, how do we look back on our lives?

At an 80th birthday party recently, we asked the birthday girl how she felt about being 80. She took a moment, then offered, “I feel like I’ve accomplished what I came into this ...