942 One Thousand Months |
I don't want to have any regrets. It takes a certain amount of forward thinking to conclude this. It also takes a certain amount of courage to realize it. Maybe the young man in the coffee shop did the math concerning one thousand months. |
941 Kindness, Gentleness and Compassion
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We have to learn to be kind, gentle, and compassionate. We are not born possessing these qualities. This thought has been like a brain worm of late. I can't get theme out of my mind. These three qualities would look good on a grave stone. |
940 Small is Beautiful
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We don't have to have the biggest house, farm, car or anything else. They may not be the most desirable. As a matter of fact; in many instances small is much better - if not beautiful. |
939 Talking Across Generations
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We retired folks have a perfect opportunity to talk to younger people. We have had a lifetime of experiences and education. We have been down many roads; made good choices and bad. We just need to learn how to tell a good story - with a point. |
938 The Coffee Shop
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No matter what is scheduled, we go to coffee. It is a social hour for us. When we retired and relocated we took into consideration the distance to restaurants, grocery stores, drug store, book shops and of course, coffee shops. We wanted to be able to walk to all of them. We can, and we do. |
937
The "Ten Thousand Hour Rule"
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Malcom Gladwell, writer for the New Yorker magazine, recently wrote a book where he suggested that if you do anything for 10 thousand hours you can be successful at it. I'm living proof that there are exceptions. |
936 Tai Chi
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In a recent email to Retirement Talk, John from McLean, Virginia wondered if I could talk a bit about Tai Chi. He exercises regularly, is close to retirement age and feel a bit tense at his work. He wanted to know if I thought Tai Chi might be worked into a routine that might help him. |
935 What am I doing here?
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Maybe the existentialists had it wrong. The real life of the absurd would be if we were to live forever. The idea of accepting our own death is a comforting step to take. It relieves us of youthful misconceptions and philosophical rationalizations that are not as substantial as they earlier seemed. |
934 Moving to be Close to Children
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Modern life demands mobility for education and employment. The family is uprooted. The extended family is a casualty. It all seems pretty academic until it happens to you. Suddenly, one day, it all becomes very personal. What to do? |
933 Watermelon Burgers
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This is one of the greatest things about retirement. When we are working at going to school or going to work our lives are pretty well filled up. We don't have time or energy to really consider some of the basics of our lives. |
932 Human Touch
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Thoughts about increasing demands on our social security system brought a former vision of mine to the surface. Human Touch was the title of my Master’s thesis work. I wrote up a proposal to the State of Alaska for the creation of a program that would benefit seniors, students and society. |
931 The Dark Ages
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When I was a kid my thoughts roamed on to include ideas that when these old people die off we will be left with only people who have been educated to rely on the scientific method and all that it offers. Now I am one of those older people and I read, hear and see things in the press that seem completely out of sync with science and the belief in reason. |
930 Risk It
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Retirement itself involves a degree of risk. We don't know if we will be happy or not. We don't know if we will have enough income to live comfortably. We don't know if we will have enough income to last until our death since we never know how much time we have yet to live. |
929 Murder Trial
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Retirement allows us time to expand our horizons. New experiences may be closer than we think. You might want to check out your local courthouse and find out what trials are scheduled to start soon. Here is the story of our experience. |
928 Road Trip (2) Vehicle
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We wanted a rig that was relatively safe. We wanted airbags and all of that other fancy stuff. And as well as safety we wanted a bit of comfort. When one decides to take a road trip that could last a few months, comfort becomes important. |
927 Road Trip USA
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Deciding to see America from the road is an easy choice to make when one enters retirement. It’s a big country and to drive around it takes a lot of time; time that most folks don’t have until they retire. |