Can you be Happily After Retirement, really? What about feelings of being disconnected and alone? What about not having that place where coworkers gather and converse, share and connect over projects, over work, over a lifetime? Or a scheduled reason to get up and get going every day? Or a million other things?

Well for me, retirement is about staying connected to people, organizations, nature and myself. It’s volunteering, working out, hiking, and growing. The growing involves lots of reading, lectures, libraries and silence. The silence allows me to stop the noise and review who I am, what I am and where I am going.

However, for as much as I want you to believe I have it figured out, I do not. I am wanting to be part of something bigger, yet something intimate. I need to have structure but also want the freedom to travel. I search blogs, read magazines and books, attend gatherings and continue to wonder where I belong. Have you figured it out yet? Some people follow their bucket list, others clean their closets. There is no answer to this one – like when we left school and were expected to get a job. Now we are leaving a career and what…?

I am looking for THE BIG WHAT?

Whether I write this blog or not, life goes on either way. The sun still rises and it’s glorious. Sometimes I capture the scene on my camera but I would rather just sit in awe and soak it in. Maybe I’ll blog about the colors, the smells and try to describe the fresh air but I’d rather take that hike up the hillside with friends. With you.  What are your wants?

Marianne Williamson wrote so eloquently “We are all meant to shine, as children do.” And now, as we enter retirement, we are also allowed to shine. Duties and responsibilities are winding down and options are on the horizon.

I’m not the only one that feels like this, am I? So, how do we connect?  What is it that you do with your time that makes you giggle with anticipation of it?

There are so many ways to expand my horizons and not even leave my couch. Which is so good … and not good at all! Movement is necessary in so many ways. Trust me on this one. Action is the key to life.

Bradley Whitford wrote this brilliant passage…

“Infuse your life with action.
Don’t wait for it to happen.
Make it happen.
Make your own future.
Make your own hope.
Make your own love.
And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen… yourself, right now, right down here on Earth.”

Get busy living… a reminder from my favorite movie – Shawshank Redemption –
Get busy living or get busy dying !
What shall it be my friends?

---

Resources & Treasures:

Mirth and Motivation: Live your wild precious life
https://mirthandmotivation.com/2019/04/08/motivation-mondays-live-your-wild-precious-life/

The Why About This: To Write is to Breathe
https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/2822738/posts/2237239776

7 Strange Questions that Help You Find Your Life Purpose
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/7-strange-questions-that-help-you-find-your-life-purpose

Youtube Learning
https://www.youtube.com/education?lg=EN&b=400

NOVA
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/series/nova-wonders/#living-in-you

Maggie Rogers: Tiny Desk Concert
https://youtu.be/SqPtIkxSxI0

The Fork in the Road
https://happilyafterretirement.com/2018/06/30/the-fork-in-the-road/

Podcasts: Either go to their website and listen or go into your phone app store and download any podcast app and start listening!

Beautiful Writers Podcast
Afford Anything
Good Life Project
Clark Howard

Audiobooks (from almost any library) for free can be listened to on these great platforms:

• Libby – https://meet.libbyapp.com
• Hoopla – https://www.hoopladigital.com
• Overdrive – https://www.overdrive.com/

Youtube videos:

• Gardening anyone? Check this out- Compost Garden Tower
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7EWikoxGgs
• The Power of Vulnerabliity – Ted Talk
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o
• Indi/Folk/Pop Compilation
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpWtOULeGHk