psy·chot·ic leop·ard sīˈkädik/ˈlepərd/ noun · anything that is funky, interesting, beautiful, niche, useful, and grabs one's attention

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News — Middle Age Life

Strong Powerful Women: HEATHER FLAHERTY - FEMALE BOXER, MOTHER, CHAMPION

Posted by Lisa Johnson on

Strong Powerful Women:  HEATHER FLAHERTY -  FEMALE BOXER, MOTHER, CHAMPION

  This is the first in a series of blogs about strong women I know personally, and today’s obvious choice is Heather, a friend and fellow turbo sweatie.   When I first started classes at the Y, I myself was going through a lot of personal trauma in the wake of my son’s best friend’s suicide, and some severe marital issues.  While normally I am quick to make friends, months passed with only a casual greeting between myself and fellow gym mates. Heather was and remains the friendliest girl in our classes, and was one of the first people I...

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DEEPENING FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS WITH WOMEN & THEIR FATHERS AND SONS: STEP BY STEP

Posted by Lisa Johnson on

DEEPENING FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS WITH WOMEN & THEIR FATHERS AND SONS:  STEP BY STEP

  When I was little, every Sunday morning started by walking with my dad “to get the paper.”  Instead of The New York Times being delivered to our house, he liked to go down to the local drugstore for it, and I would accompany him.  As the eldest child, my sister still a toddler and at home with my mom, I basked in his full attention.   The neighborhood I lived in was called Indian Village, and all of the streets were named after Native American tribes.  Probably less for tradition and more as a deterrent for cars, almost every...

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Jewelry and Value: Determining the Priceless

Posted by Lisa Johnson on

Jewelry and Value:  Determining the Priceless

  When I was in the midst of a messy divorce, one of the things my lawyer said to do was figure out all of the assets, and a biggie, he explained, was jewelry.  I was told to carefully go through what I had, make a list, and figure out an estimated value of its worth. My wedding ring was a simple gold band, and I hadn’t worn it in so long that I couldn’t even remember where it was.  My ex had gotten lucky: I was young and naive when we met, and had not made a big deal...

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The Evolution of a Gym Rat:  Instagram Envy, and How I Made Fitness A Top Priority

Posted by Lisa Johnson on

The Evolution of a Gym Rat:  Instagram Envy, and How I Made Fitness A Top Priority

  Under the guise of business, I began dipping into the waters of Instagram for the past year, and observed that anyone with posts related to exercise, workouts or hard bodies, seems to get LOADS of likes.  Why do people pay so much attention to everyone else’s progress?  Is it really motivating to see how far others have succeeded? In elementary school, I was a gymnast. My best friend used to tease me because I wore sweatpants to school four days a week, and owned one pair of patchwork dungarees with a parrot on back pocket (boy, do I wish...

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Precious and Valuable: Finding Personal Significance in Family Possessions

Posted by Lisa Johnson on

Precious and Valuable:  Finding Personal Significance in Family Possessions

My mother is the kind of person who saves everything, including the unimportant, and over the decades, it’s taken over her and my father’s house. Within weeks of my sisters and I going off to college, our bedrooms were transformed into what appeared to be retail storage space for her clothing, as round chrome store-bought racks became centerpieces we had to squeeze around whenever we came home for a visit, the cold metal sagging under dozens of cheap dresses and floral pant sets. I don’t even remember her wearing most of them. To assuage everyone’s complaints and because she actually...

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