MUCH EXCITEMENT IN MY LIFE

I cannot believe that I haven’t blogged since Thanksgiving Weekend. Well, yes I can. I have been back-to-back busy, that’s why. But it has all been so exciting that I wish I had kept you updated every step of the way. I even forgot to bring my camera so, not only have I not written but no pictures except this one of me with a group of high school girls called Girl Up, a group sponsored by the U.N. Foundation created by my favorite ex-husband, Ted Turner. They performed at the end of a 90 minute session I hosted yesterday as part of the TEDx Conference, the 2nd TED conference for and about women that was held all day yesterday at the Paley Center and produced by the amazing Pat Mitchell.

I have been working hard to make my session powerful and, frankly, I have been on pins and needles with fear these last days, worried that something would go wrong. It went better than I could have imagined and the feedback has been so wonderful.

My session was about aging and was based in large part on the topics I cover in my new book, “Prime Time.” The session was called “Rebirth” and I love this: the notion of age as rebirth. But that is what aging can be, what it often is for seniors, and a series of exceptional speakers helped explained why: Dr Laura Carstensen, founding Director of the Stanford Longevity Center, spoke about why older people tend to be less stressed, less anxious, more able to roll with life’s challenges; Dr Michelle Warren, the remarkable doctor who has been voted best Doctor in America since 2004 spoke about why women approaching menopause need to take a new look at the advantages hormone replacement therapy can bring us, that it is not a “yes” or “no” issue, but a very individual matter that should be explored with your doctor and not avoided because of the myths that it causes breast cancer and heart attacks. Author and feminist, Suzanne Braun Levine spoke about how to handle the scary, confusing period that women go through as they approach menopause, a period that Suzanne refers to as the “Fertile Void,” a time that can, in fact, be the beginning of a whole new, profound life. Dr Oz was powerful in his talk about why remaining physically active is critical to aging successfully. Gloria Steinem spoke moving about what she has learned in her life and what she still hope for the future, for younger generations of girls and Anthropologist and author, Mary Catherine Bateson, spoke about how women elders are the ones best suited to save the world.

I’m skimming over what these wonderful people had to say but perhaps you can watch on line on the TEDx website. The talk will also be posted soon on the larger TED Conference website. As soon as I have exact link information I will post and tweet it out.

This weekend I will spend preparing for all the TV shows I do on Monday and Tuesday: The Today Show (twice!), The View, Joy Behar, Anderson Cooper, The Dr Oz Show, Piers Morgan, and Jimmy Kimmel. I am doing them all within the first 3 days of next week but they won’t air till the following week. We will post the air dates on this site soon.

Along with that, I‘m excited about seeing “The Hugh Jackman One-Man Show” on Saturday and “Other Desert Cities” on Sunday and dinners with friends in between. I am popping out of my skin with excitement about all this…and there’s more but it has to remain secret till I am given the go-ahead to tell you.

I’ll do my best to remember to bring my camera to all these events.

Till the next time…