Support for women ripening into the second half of life.

Dear Reader,

I was on the phone with a friend recently, circling together around how life feels right now.

We talked about how my mother’s terminal illness has been the backdrop to my whole adulthood.

When my friend asked how that was shaping me now, I paused, searched for a word, and heard myself say something about recalibration.

I’ve been turning that word over ever since, trying to put language to the shifts inside me.

My mom’s headstrong, my-way-or-the-highway spirit—the very thing that once drove us apart—has also kept her alive through a medicalized existence I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

And now we’re here together, holding both more and less time together than I ever imagined.

This season of recalibration is drawing me back to the basics—

• walking the dogs at dawn with Dustin, coffee steaming in my hand.
• cooking meals slowly enough to smell the shallots and rosemary hit the pan.
• releasing the scramble to replace a babysitter.
• choosing projects that feel like sacred play.
• pulling on socks when my toes are ice-cold.
• leaving the laundry unfolded because the sunset feels like a beauty emergency.
• laying down when my body asks for rest.
• And leaving my office to write to you from a sunny, chilly spot on my deck...

Midlife teaches you this: the through-lines of your life begin to reveal themselves. You see it laid out like threads—some glimmering, some frayed, some still in the act of weaving.

So, recalibration it is. For now.

How about you, Reader?
What’s a word for where you are right now?

To your second bite,

Brooke

P.S. I’ll be back later this week with a story of how recalibration showed up in real time.

P.P.S. This is my current dinner cooking playlist. It's got Lauren Hill, Maggie Rogers, Leon Bridges, and some new to me stuff too.