(View entire post here)

Late-blooming dancer Thomas Dwyer has for the last three weeks been putting in 12-hour rehearsal days at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. He and fellow dancers from the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange prepared 57 community participants, from ages seven to mid-70s, for the premiere performances of "Language of the Land"  Feb. 12-14 before packed houses.

A couple of days before opening night, Thomas noted that performance anxiety was rising along with the demand for the kind of heightened focus required for a professional show. "That's sometimes hard for the folks from the community (who are) not used to" the scale of production the Dance Exchange was staging. "But everyone at the Kohler has been great."

In addition to readying for his own role as naturalist John Muir, who spent much of his young life in Wisconsin studying and writing about the land, Thomas, 75, and the other dancers have worked hard to translate ideas from a variety of groups into a single dance and to teach dance skills. 

(View entire post here)

Unlike the characters in a book of fiction, just because I put a period at the end of their chapters didn't mean that the amazing people in my new book stopped challenging themselves, achieving new goals, or facing life's complications.

In addition to posting photographs of them on my new website, www.brucefrankel.net, I'm planning to continue to update their lives from time to time with blog posts. In the meantime, here are a couple of recent bits of news:

- Nashville runner Margie Stoll was determined at the close of her chapter, The Natural, to win her way back into bold type in the annual Running Times Masters Awards. With the magazine's March issue Margie, 68, does just that. She's ranked #3 among 65+ women runners in the United States. And, as if that wasn't enough, on Feb. 7, she took first place for her age group in the 2010 USATF Half Marathon in Melbourne.

- Writer Harry Bernstein, on the verge of turning 100, is at work completing his fourth book. This one is a fictionalized memoir of his sister Rose.

- Teacher Nancy Gagliano retired in late 2009 as a teacher at the Banyan Elementary School in Sunrise, FL. just three months before her husband, James F. Gagliano died in February. He was 70.

- Betty Reid Soskin, at 89, the oldest ranger in the National Park Service ranger, whose extraordinary life makes up the chapter Living Color, has among other things lately:

(View entire post here)

When I began to research and interview the later-life achievers featured in my new book, I tried to maintain a warm but objective distance. It wasn't always easy.

They were very engaging. They introduced me to friends and family and opened their lives to me. They shared their goals, struggles, and victories along with their intimate secrets, their most painful memories. They made themselves transparent and, therefore, vulnerable.

Some nights, as I sifted through notes or listened to recorded interviews, I was terrified that they had entrusted me to shape and edit their lives as I saw fit.

Once the writing was finished, our sense of kinship grew. Now, I sometimes catch myself speaking of "my" sculptor, psychologist, inventor, or dancer.  Some of them have told me that they speak of me as "my author." We have, it seems, become proprietary about each other.

We have also become a kind of extended family. Many of them have told me how happy and proud they are to be in the company with the others in the book. They've also said what a hoot it would be for everyone to get together for one night. Or, in the words of Betty Reid Soskin, 88, the oldest ranger in the National Park Service, "Oh, what a party that would be!"

(View entire post here)

When I began my new book, a friend suggested that to gain confidence in my ability to complete it I should visualize myself signing the finished book or being congratulated by a certain TV talk show host. I tried. But self-mockery usually subverted my intentions.

Running on the track or at the gym each day worked better. It was a good physical metaphor for the process. "If you can finish the next mile, Bruce, you can finish three more pages today," I might tell myself. Like running, writing the book just required pushing along each day.

But it was the examples and voices of the 14 men and women in What Should I Do with the Rest of My Life? that bolstered me the most.

When money troubles threatened, I could hear Dr. "Robby" Iadeluca, who first became a psychologist at 60 and then a specialist in substance abuse at 70, quoting his mother, "Keep your face to the sunshine, and the shadows will fall behind." 

When self-doubt kidnapped my confidence, I heard social entrepreneur Dana Dakin saying that the key to the success of WomensTrust, the microfinance organization she began in Pokuase, Ghana, was not rocket science,  "We just keep coming back."

When exhaustion overtook me, I turned to the image of Thomas Dwyer, in his mid-70s, rehearsing for hours each morning in Liz Lerman's Dance Exchange studio in Takoma Park, Md. I pictured him in his well-worn sweats, doing pushups, throwing balls in the air, and otherwise pushing himself through his rigorous physical regime while, all day long, remaining alert to the details of choreography.

(View entire post here)

Bruce Frankel is one of our guest bloggers during the week of March 8th. If you have any questions for Bruce Frankel, add a comment to any of his posts. Here is some more information about What Should I Do with the Rest of My Life:

Read an excerpt from the book.

An award-winning journalist offers exhilarating tales of "late bloomers" who prove that it's never too late to sign a new lease on life

In today's world, the question "What should I do with my life?" only scratches the surface. Now, more and more people-from baby boomers retiring from their "first act" to people in their forties and fifties forced to reconsider their careers in this gloomy economy-are finding themselves wondering how to find new stimulation and meaningful work over a lifetime. Bringing together a diverse array of stories, veteran journalist Bruce Frankel brings to life a mesmerizing series of profiles of men and women who discovered a new calling, success, or purpose later in life. Brimming with inspiration and humanity, What Should I Do With the Rest of My Life? celebrates activists, artists, entrepreneurs, filmmakers, and others who found extraordinary ways to experience true fulfillment in the second half of life.