What will people think?

If you're tired of hearing that question (from others or from your inner saboteur), this is the place to be.

I don’t care how old you are, how old you feel, or how old you look. I don’t take sides in the anti-aging v. pro-aging, should I go gray, Botox debates—not until men are targeted with the same messages.

Purpose-perfection-productivity woman-traps are easy to get caught up in. For anyone who has ever felt the pressure to BE something, AMID LIFE is a newsletter about learning to recognize and release cultural conditioning and limiting self-beliefs, and DO what makes us feel whole and happy.

Written for (and by) resilient, restless, and rebellious women, AMID LIFE features personal essays, researched opinions with a feminist lens, and lessons born of real-world experience.

I left a 35-year career in business in search of what I “might have been.” For years, I was on a frenetic search to find my so-called purpose.

An invisible chorus of shoulds followed me everywhere. You know that voice inside your head—from your Instagram feed, your last performance review, your high school teacher, an Oprah Winfrey special, your mom—telling you who and what you should BE in this world?

I hired a life wizard, tried on several new careers, read self-help, listened to powerful women on podcasts, and created dozens of PowerPoints, spreadsheets, and lists before I gave up and decided to DO what made me happiest.

Along the way, I learned valuable lessons that help me to shed the weight of expectations and the cultural standards heaped on women by the world in which we were raised—yes, the patriarchy, but also the “follow-your-passion, 10-steps-to-happiness, live-your-best-life” self-help promises, magazine covers, and filtered social media feeds of #fabulousover40 (or 50 or 60) women.

In this newsletter, you will find:

Notes from the middle: personal essays about self-discovery, researched opinions on what I like to call, the purpose-industrial complex.

Moments of change: women writing about life’s key turning points (learn how you can submit your story.

Rough drafts: progress reports from building a writer’s life, starting late and starting over.

AMID LIFE offers thoughtful, vulnerable HUMAN¹ stories, opportunities to connect, and some advice and resources that might help you navigate life’s inevitable changes.

“I feel seen!” Said one happy subscriber.

That is everything I could hope for.

Work hard. Be brave. Believe.

Catherine

1. Full disclosure. Artificial Intelligence (AI) does not and will never write a single word of my books, essays, opinion pieces, captions, notes, social media posts, comments, journal entries, prompts, or grocery lists. My voice, including my prolific use of the em-dash, is mine—and mine alone. From time to time, I will use ChatGPT to facilitate research (always double-checking and triple-checking the original source material) or to help me brainstorm titles (I’m bad at writing titles, and honestly, the robot isn’t much better). I don’t think I’ve ever used an AI-suggested title verbatim, but I wouldn’t swear to it.