Looking for Answers

A two week vacation can certainly put one’s life in a completely different stream of action.  Staying active seems so much easier when there is no deadline for bedtime or rising in the morning.  The challenge now is to see if one can keep some sort of momentum going once we are back in the workforce.  For me that means structure and organization, everything from planning meals to laying out the clothes for the following day.  It means putting things in their proper place so I am not searching frantically for car keys, lunch bags or boots.  Schedules are important to me even when I have all the time in the world.  I like to know what I am doing for the day.  Even when on vacation I like to have a certain flow in the day so that I am not flying all over the place ending up lost or frustrated.

So you are wondering, where is she headed today?  Interestingly enough I happened to turn on the television yesterday and the first program on was called “Boundless Potential” and the first words that the host Mark Walton spoke was “reinventing yourself after retirement” which naturally attracted my instant attention.  I had missed the first half of the program but the half that I watched was extremely interesting since it spoke about so many of the things that I had been questioning and researching about retirement and longevity these last 8 years.  How wonderful to learn that I was on the right track, that we can continue to learn and grow in our later years and to do so brings the reward of a very fulfilling longevity. 

Part of Walton’s research indicated that by developing some type of career in later life that included educating or engaging younger generation with a style of “paying it forward” would reward a person by increasing their life span.  I expect this is simply because one becomes happy and fulfilled by being meaningful even in old age which triggers the body into not being stressed or depressed.  Just as Barbara Walters’ documentation on longevity some years ago summed up the final equation as being Joy of Life, this particular research indicates that by being happy and fulfilled one tended to live longer.

The goal is, be happy.