I invited an interior designer to my home on Monday to consult with me about giving my kitchen a facelift. I had worked with Sue to help me pick out paint colors for all the rooms in my home when I went on a mad painting spree four years ago.

I turn 56 this week, and also celebrate my wedding anniversary. You can see why I call this week of May, “milestone week.” As I thought about my upcoming birthday, I picked up a book I read a decade ago, On Women Turning 50: Celebrating Mid-Life Discoveries by Cathleen Rountree. She interviewed a variety of women, from doctors, actresses, and journalists to activists, about their experiences turning 50.

By Isabelle Schoenfeld (TTN-DC). I look down at my hands these days and can see my mother’s hands in them.

We all react to conditions that are arising around us throughout the day. What if you take a step back and look within instead. Rather than having your mind full of the reaction only, what if you create a little space to see how you’re reacting?

Change can be freeing and open up new avenues in our lives. Yet FEAR also comes up when change presents new and unexplored territory.

Thinking about this made me think of the old joke: Question: What’s the definition of a minor operation? Answer: Someone else’s?

Dominique Browning, former editor of House & Garden, wrote a wonderful, poignant, and deeply personal piece in the Sunday NYT, March 28. Called “Losing It”, Browning describes the complete disjointedness of losing her job unexpectedly when the magazine folded in 2007.

Have you wondered why some women seem to effortlessly transition to life and work they love after their current careers, while you seem to struggle with even the idea of it? Does figuring out how to make this transition leave you feeling puzzled or panicky? Maybe you’re being downsized or forced to retire out of your lifelong career. Or, you just know it’s time to move on, but just can’t seem to take the leap. Join 12 of the world’s top life/work transition experts (including TTN’s own Executive Director Betsy Werley) as they reveal how to discover a meaningful encore career In “retirement” in a FREE 2-Day Telesummit.

Seems like resilience it’s the theme in my life lately. I “stumbled” upon (although, I don’t believe there are any real coincidences) to a wonderful seminar Developing Resilience in Times of Change by Joan Borysenko.

I took away these nuggets about resilience: