I was 41 when I became pregnant with my twin daughters. Thanks to acupuncture, yoga and a wise obstetrician who convinced me to renounce vegetarianism and gain 50 pounds, I successfully nurtured two babies through a nearly full-term, mostly blissful pregnancy.

My "advanced maternal age" -- prenatal checkup speak --...

My workout begins with a 30-foot climb up a ladder suspended from a towering dome. "Ladder" is stating it generously. The device upon which I make my ascent is comprised of two parallel cables the circumference of my laptop's power chord, threaded through metal rungs that could double as chopsticks....

Outside my window, red and gold leaves that just yesterday were clinging safely to their branches blast through the air as if shot from a cannon. An impatient wind is accelerating the annual rite of passage between summer to winter, otherwise known as fall.

Exalted by many for its crisp,...