I am glad that I met such a friend in Barbara Younger who blogs at her lovely website where she encourages us about the ups and downs of menopause. She shares a positive message as she encourages us to live a full life. Barbara kindly invited me to share a post on her site. Thanks Barabara for being a friend. Here it is: Are You Ready to Jump into Retirement?
A sunny day, a school playground- do you remember jumping rope during recess? Two kids twirled the long clothesline rope as we chanted:
I acquired my roadmap for life in the third grade. Love, marriage, baby carriage, being a grownup- I followed those milestones for forty years. Then my husband and I retired. We had come to the end of the road as I knew it and there weren’t any more words in the jump rope jingle to help me. I needed a new guide.
Are you wondering about your retirement journey? Are you worried about the end of your career and the changes that aging will bring? I was and here’s what I did. I changed the destination on my life GPS from work to what’s next. I took a cooking class, volunteered and kept up with friends. My days, unstructured and without direction at first, began to satisfy me. Except, I was driving one way and my husband was heading somewhere else. For years, we had been joined by our shared responsibilities, and now that he and I were free we were growing apart. Recalculate!
Here’s how my husband and I got back on track. Some of these ideas may seem obvious to you, but it took us time to find ways that worked for us.
I am a writer, blogger, book reviewer, and bon vivant and encourager. I have lived my entire life in Tropical Ohio. My goal is to make friends with everyone in the world. I wrote a fiction series, The Golden Age of Charli, that presents the problems and praises, and the love and laughter of family life and retirement. My passions are blogging, reading and reviewing, and writing. My life is a WIP.