Vena, at 67 I still believe that I am in the high, late summer of my life. Over the years I've given this analogy a lot of thought. I keep wondering when I'm going to feel as though the leaves are falling ((the teeth did, the hair did, but the rest of me keeps hanging in there). Sometimes I think that how we couch our lives, the way we frame our experiences from the standpoint of time has a lot to do with our energy levels. While I am not in any way making a recommendation, your comment brought this up for me- I don't know that I ever experienced middle age, or at least what so many believe is. You and I share the child-free experience, and I strongly believe it has a lot to do with how we experience our existence. Without the kids' lives by which to gauge our age or our life's arcs, it's a very different set of reference points. That said, however, the children you and I produce (articles, books, etc) have a whole different life of their own.