Retirement Talk

WHAT to do with the rest of your life?

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Dick Smith's Page
004: Family and Happiness
The importance of creating a happy environment for the family is the theme of Dick Smith's monologue. Retirement can offer time for special insights into this value.

008: Tying the Past to the Present Road trips after retirement can sometimes lend insight into history, the present time, and one's own life. Dick Smith and his wife Linda Sutherland illustrate this beautifully in this story.

011: Taking Life as It Come Retirement can bring many challenges to each of us. Dick Smith tells us of his manner of dealing with change by 'taking life as it comes'.

015: The Man In the Mirror
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Retirement means that we must identify ourselves with the availability of a job title. The question 'who are we?' becomes a bit more complicated. Friends can help in reflecting our new identity.

017: A Time To Reconnect Dick Smith looks at retirement and the opportunity we have to review our lives in the records and memories of our extended families. This is a good time to dig out old family pictures and reconnect with former friends and relatives that have shared our lives.

019: Work and Play Dick Smith finds that retirement allows time for reviewing and perfecting work skills that have been gained over a lifetime. It is also a time to play at activities that one has always dreamed.

026: Dealing with Aches and Pains
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Dick Smith shares ideas with us in dealing with the aches and pains that come later in life. He deals the aches and pains we have and those that others have. What to do?

036: Dignity, Identity, and Health Care
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Maintaining human dignity is a life long issue. Identity theft is a daily challenge. Our health care system sometimes makes demands on our dignity and identity that is a concern for all.

042: Death of a Son
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When a child dies, a difficult time faces the parent. This is true if the parent is young or retired. Dick Smith shares his experience of facing this time of tragedy at the age of 81.

059: Retirement: a Time for Understanding Retirement gives us time to come to terms with what makes us and the world go round. It also gives us time to find the center of ourselves.

061: My Aumakua or Place In the World
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Retirement is the last act in this drama called life. What will be the nature of this final act? New dimensions other than work will have to serve to identify us.

065: This Old House
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Time takes a toll on a house and a person alike. Dick Smith sees similarities between the needed physical and spiritual task of required maintenance.

074: War Stories - A Place and A Time
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Telling old stories to folks that aren't interested is an open pit for retired folks. Dick Smith talks of the need for the telling and yet the care concerning when and where the telling takes place.

085 Writing a Book with Your Grandchild

Dick Smith shares a story of a retirement activity that might be well used by many of us. Writing a book with a grandchild, or young child at a school, might be just the thing to create a little mystery and change our lives.

093: Recording Stories - "On the Loose"  Many of us imagine ourselves recording stories of ourselves, or someone else, before it is too late.  It is a great thing to do in the retirement phase of life. In this retirement podcast, Dick Smith shares a story written in his Senior Memoirs Writing Group about doing the very thing.


095: A Lifelong Interest - Geodesic Domes

Retirement brings many topics of discussion into our lives. Some may continue on from youth. Dick Smith shares with us his everlasting interest in geodesic domes.

103: Mentors
We all remember people who had exceptional influence on our lives. In this memoir, Dick Smith relates some of his favorite people who played a role in making him who he is today.

104: Risky Business
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All of life is a risk to some degree. As we age we tend to avoid big risk taking. Sometimes we need to screw up our courage and step out on a limb. It makes life more exciting and interesting.

106: "Because I Said So!"
We have all heard the words in the title of this retirement podcast. Sometimes they were said to us and sometimes we said them to others. Dick Smith believes retirement gives us time to change our mind and attitudes.

108: Our True Home
John McCain recently revealed the ownership of nine homes at the present time. Dick Smith had eight houses, but not all at the same time. Converting a house into a home is a trick. I'm not sure it can be done with nine at a time.

127: Retirement, Values and Patriotism
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Retirement may be a time to "kick back" in some ways. It can afford us more time to consider our own values and those of our community. Dick Smith writes letters to the editor of the local newspaper expressing his values.

129: Reviewing the History of Our Time
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Dick Smith finds inspiration while drinking coffee with other retired friends. Their conversation and minds mix and bring different views to lives that have spanned the same time frame.

133: Retirement and Needs
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We all have needs throughout our lives. In this podcast Dick Smith considers our needs and how they relate to retired folks. What do we need to not only sustain us but to allow us to flourish at this stage in our lives?

136: Gardening
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In this episode Dick Smith shares his thoughts with us concerning his recent retirement project of creating a garden. The process has brought to mind other gardens and people that have been part of his life.

139: John's Departure
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Links to the past continue to be broken as we age. We learn to value what we have. Retirement has its challenges and dealing with the death of a friend is one. Dick Smith shares his thoughts concerning his friend John.

147: Memoir in Retirement
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Joining a memoir writing group can help in understanding our entire life. It helps us look back; it helps us examine the present and it helps us clarify our connection to others. Dick Smith shares these recent thoughts.

149: Out of the Box
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Retirement is a major life change for us all.  We find ourselves "out of the box" we have been living in for years.  Dick Smith shares some thoughts on this new beginning.

157: From Career to Vocation
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Many people turn something they do for fun into a career. Creating a joyful retirement may be the time to go the other way and turn a career into a vocation. Dick Smith is our guest.

166: Thoughts that Go Back and Forth
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Multitasking just seems to violate all principles of retirement. We are supposed to slow down and take life a little easier. Dick Smith talks about some of his conflicts and solutions to the problem.

176: Nursing Homes
Retirement seems to be accompanied by the need to visit nursing homes. Parents or friends many times relocate to these facilities as we grow older. Dick Smith shares some of the lessons he has learned that might help with these sometimes difficult visits.


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