{"id":11457,"date":"2016-03-31T18:55:05","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T22:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=11457"},"modified":"2017-03-02T09:27:54","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T14:27:54","slug":"dancing-around-the-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/dancing-around-the-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Dancing Around The Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 2016 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

With Christiane Northrup<\/span><\/h3>\n

This physician advises \u2018ageless living\u2019 with common sense\u2026and tango lessons.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interview by Claire Z. Cramer<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Dr_northrup\"Dr. Christiane Northrup, an outspoken authority on women\u2019s health, is the author of Goddesses Don\u2019t Age<\/i> (Hay House, 2015) and other best-sellers including The Wisdom of Menopause<\/i> and Mother-Daughter Wisdom<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Dartmouth-trained physician began practicing medicine in Maine in 1981; she co-founded Women to Women, a practice based on both holistic and Western medicine, in Yarmouth in 1985; and she was an assistant clinical professor of OB\/GYN at Maine Medical Center for 20 years. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Northrup left Women to Women in 1997, and conventional medical practice, to focus on writing, teaching, and speaking. Through her books, e-newsletter, radio show, television specials, and appearances on such TV programs as the Today Show<\/i> and Oprah<\/i>, she has been a leader in the discussion about what it means to grow older. Not that Northrup, who W<\/i> magazine likens to a \u201cplatinum-blonde pixie,\u201d seems to have any time for being \u201colder.\u201d She advises banishing the terms \u201caging\u201d and \u201csenior moment,\u201d urging us instead to dance with life rather than take it sitting down, to \u201ctake pleasure in ageless living.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

How can you tell an ageless Maine goddess from an ageless goddess from away?<\/span><\/p>\n

Ageless goddesses in Maine don\u2019t wear high-heeled fashion boots in the snow or in airports. We have our feet on the ground. And we love having a good stack of firewood at our disposal. <\/span><\/p>\n

We love your list of 12 things you\u2019re too wise for. Can you make adjustments to it with some specific Maine examples? <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m too wise to worry about keeping up with the latest fashion. But I also know that function needn\u2019t be ugly. Example: the Aristelle lingerie store on Exchange Street.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m too wise to allow my chronological age to be a cage. I don\u2019t think about it. Or use it as an excuse. When asked how old I am, I tell them the truth: my biological age is 33. My wisdom age is 300. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m too wise to believe that the best years of my life are behind me. I keep getting better and better at dancing Argentine tango with my Portland community. We dance close, embrace with all ages and walks of life. Check us out at porttango.com<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m too wise to think it\u2019s normal to get stiff and achy as I get older. I\u2019ve prevented this by regular workouts with Hope Matthews at Sparhawk Pilates in Yarmouth, and I started [Pilates]with Nancy Etnier in Portland.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m too wise to curtail my creativity! I just took up process painting [therapeutic art] with Brady Nickerson in Edgecomb. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m too wise to think that \u201cthe grass is greener\u201d somewhere else. Maine is special. It\u2019s the way life should be. I feel blessed to live here. <\/span><\/p>\n

You have a busy 2016, including your \u201cI Can Do It\u201d North American speaking tour. How do you find room for a balanced life?<\/span><\/p>\n

I decline over 90 percent of the invitations I get to travel and teach. And I look at my schedule a year in advance and make sure there is plenty of downtime. <\/span><\/p>\n

Do you have any upcoming speaking engagements scheduled in Maine? <\/span> <\/b><\/p>\n

I will be meeting with a holistic study group at USM sometime this spring. <\/span><\/p>\n

How do you power down and relax after a hectic day, whether at home or in a distant hotel room?<\/span><\/p>\n

By taking a long bath while reading a
\ngood book!<\/span><\/p>\n

Where are your favorite Maine places?<\/span><\/p>\n

My backyard, the Spear Farm nature preserve in Yarmouth, and the view from the Eastern Prom. The cliff walk around Prout\u2019s Neck, Scarborough Beach, Portland Head Light, The Royal River, Casco Bay, the Kennebec River, and Penobscot Bay. <\/span><\/p>\n

In which restaurants here might we find you? <\/span><\/p>\n

The Royal River Grill House in Yarmouth, Peachy\u2019s Smoothie Cafe in Yarmouth; Dockside in Falmouth, The Green Elephant and Boda in Portland. <\/span><\/p>\n

When you\u2019ve been away on tour, how do you know you\u2019re truly back home in Maine when you return?<\/span><\/p>\n

The feeling I get at the Jetport when the jet bridge with the lobsters says, \u201cWelcome Home.\u201d Or when I cross the bridge in Portsmouth on the way into Maine. My bones settle in. And I breathe a sigh of relief.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 2016
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