Retiring well is much more than having enough money in the bank. You must know how you want to spend your money and to do that, it is important to know what you want in your life, what activities and people enrich you in your life, and how to stay healthy as you move into, and through, retirement. Staying healthy is a physical, emotional, intellectual, social, and spiritual undertaking and requires knowledge, practice, and commitment to achieve. Continue reading »

WE ALL WANT TO BE HAPPY. The question is not so much whether we should strive for the goal of happiness. We will no doubt continue to seek it even if it is unwise to do so. Instead of debating that question, we might be better served in being curious about what happiness is, and whether what we are searching for will bring us the happiness we desire.

OUR DISCUSSION BEGINS with a look at what is NOT likely to achieve our goal of happiness. Continue reading »

I shop at Goodwill Stores. I am not shy about saying this…I consider it fun, thrifty, and a “green” thing to do. As I was shopping at one of these lovely establishments today, it occurred to me how much of a form of meditative practice it is. It is difficult to shop at Goodwill if you have a preconceived agenda regarding what you will find. It requires staying in the moment, in order to see what is there in a way that allows you to decide its potential usefulness…either in a creative sense, or a functional sense. Continue reading »

Until recently I had a delightful cat, named Hoosier, with whom I shared many lovely, snugly moments over the past 22 years. She recently became quite ill, her kidneys were failing, and the difficult, though loving decision was made to have her put quietly to sleep. I had never had a pet euthenized before, so I have no knowledge of what the experience generally is like. I do know, however, that being present with Hoosier when the time came felt very much like watching her relax into a final sleep. She had lived a wonderful life, and, I felt, she had been given a good death. During the eulogy at her grave site, I commented: Good life, Good death, Good bye! The statement was quite short, and yet somehow complete! Continue reading »

Retiring well is much more than having enough money in the bank. You must know how you want to spend your money and to do that, it is important to know what you want in your life, what activities and people enrich you in your life, and how to stay healthy as you move into, and through, retirement. Staying healthy is a physical, emotional, intellectual, social, and spiritual undertaking and requires knowledge, practice, and commitment to achieve. Continue reading »

We’re very familiar with the concept of sports coaches, speech and voice coaches, acting coaches, etc, etc, etc. The most important thing we do on this earth is to live, and yet we get no formal training in how to do it, are taught by parents and other adults who may not have found what works very well in their own lives, so can’t be effective guides for living well.

Retirement can be done only as well as the life preceding it has been lived. If we have not been content, joyful, well-rounded, or priority focused in our lives, our retirement years may very well be more of the same. It is not the magic key to happiness, unless we have done the wor