Age Mentors

Margaret Howell

How do we age well? The answer is the same whether we are venturing in a new business, or if we need help in becoming our better selves:  We find mentors, experts in our endeavors, friends who share knowledge, give direction, and most of all, inspire.  They can be writers such as Penelope Lively, Sybil Bedford, Janet Flanners, or Mavis Gallant or designer Margaret Howell who give us glimpses into the lives of women who do.

Sybil Bedford

Age Mentors: 

A 90 year old woman whose simple elegance, curiosity, and engagement inspires me. Among other activities she  raises money for scholarships for the local high school students that changes the course of their lives.

I have a friend who collects great art and has infallable taste in books, one who is an intrepid traveler and inspired me to walk the Camino in Spain. I have a friend, a writer, who is witty and insightful, a woman that for years I suspected was the real Miss Manners, the voices so similar. Another  friend  is an athlete and encouraged me to push myself to do my first Century (100 miles) bike ride. Another friend is funny and creative, a woman that lights up a room with her joy of life and generosity to others.

Huffington Post

These women  create community gardens, save old buildings, organize free children's libraries, attend community meetings, and sit on boards. They write, learn to play instruments, speak foreign languages, take classes, try sailing, change their communities with love and fight, give the best and most interesting dinner parties, and have opinions about everything. They are worldly and adventurous, smart and fun, sexy and game.


In other words, they are  damned interesting.     

These women teach one lesson:  Don't wait. Don't wait to travel, start an enterprise, create something, do something risky, show love, uncork the champagne! 

Be intrepid. 

And the way they look? They feel beautiful and confident in their own bodies, while living fully in the world: This is the definitive mark of a women of style.

Find these women. Make them your friends. Learn from them.

Now go and be inspired!