What I Wish I Knew Before I Retired
I’ve been surrounded by thoughts on irrelevance. A blogger, that I recently began to follow, shared that she was overwhelmed with feelings of non-importance as she completed her final term of full-time work and prepared for retirement. While I was mentally composing a reply, I glanced at a television program that my husband was watching.… Continue reading Does Retirement Equal Irrelevance?
Momisms—my mom said them, your mom probably said them—and I’ve said them too (cringe here)! If you follow current research on longevity and aging…it turns out that Mom was right (who knew?). Here are ten common momisms that match frequently cited research findings on positive aging. Time Magazines’ Longevity Issue (Vol. 187, No. 6-7, Feb… Continue reading Secrets of Longevity and Aging Well — Explained through Momisms
Don’t you just love on-line personality quizzes? You know, the ones where you answer a few innocuous-seeming multiple-choice questions—press enter—and voila—you are assigned a set-in-stone personality type (that may or may not remotely resemble the you that you know). The retirement versions of these quizzes claim to be able to determine your ‘retirement personality type’,… Continue reading What is your ‘Retirement Personality Type’?
My husband and I took a mid-week, overnight trip, about a two-hour drive away from our home. It was a last minute decision to explore another part of Vancouver Island. We had a great two days away and really enjoyed ourselves. During the drive home, my husband mentioned that he just couldn’t shake the feeling… Continue reading Retirement Guilt: The Art of Not ‘Shoulding’ Upon Yourself
When our youngest son came home for Christmas, he was displeased that our ten-year-old Husky only knew how to do two small tricks--sit and shake paw--the same two tricks that he himself had taught our dog over nine years ago. With the exuberance of youth, our son was determined to teach Cody a new trick--… Continue reading Expanding My Comfort Zone–Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks
In the time leading up to my retirement, if I had been given a dollar every time someone expressed disbelief that I would actually be content not working, I could have retired much earlier. “But WHAT will you do?” and “Aren’t you afraid of being bored?” were common questions. Focussed, organized, passionate and diligent, the… Continue reading Hope for the Driven Personality
I am currently watching the snow steadily stream down outside the window of my home on Vancouver Island. Although snow is not a common sight in this particular area, nothing surprises me here, which makes me love this small town (population 12,300) even more. Shortly after we moved here we noticed that so many other… Continue reading Location! Location! Location!
Somehow I am feeling behind on this blog even before I begin. I retired in June 2015 and had optimistically believed that I would have begun blogging that same month excitedly documenting my transition into retirement, and our lives back in Canada after 14 years living in Beijing, China. Two years ahead of time we… Continue reading Retirement Reflections…and Beyond
Retirement Reflections 