Everything we know of, or conceptualize as part of our world, has an edge. Think about it. I challenge you to name something, anything, that does not have an edge, a place where it meets something else. Whether it is the curb where the road meets the side of the road, the place where the bottom of your foot meets the ground when you walk, The place where the world’s surface meets the air, the beach where the water meets the shore…as you can see, the list of possibilities, while not infinite, is extensive.

I also suggest that our lives have edges that we are always butting up against. We are always transitioning from one point to another point in our lives. Often one thing stops and another begins in a sudden, powerful way, and sometimes the change is so subtle as to go unnoticed for a time. Some of these changes are pleasant, like the birth of a grandchild, and some are not so pleasant, like when we lose a spouse or significant person in our life (to death, divorce, etc.), or when we are involuntarily “retired” from a company at which we have spent a great deal of time and energy, to name just a couple of these types of uncomfortable transitional periods. Even when the transitional period sometimes referred to as “retirement” is of our own choosing, it is still one of life’s “edges” and can be unsettling. We often believe we know what it will look like, and only after a year or two of traversing this “edge” we find it may not be what we had thought. It depends on how realistic we are in our view of this developmental period. Even when we have prepared financially as best we can for no longer working, we may find that our preparation was not complete. Sometimes, after a while, the edge between being employed and being retired can rub us the wrong way! Have you really prepared for the edge? Do you know what your dreams are for this stage in your life…what brings passion to your life and makes you feel alive? Remember, you are on the edge of either excitement or fear, adventure or danger. Which experience will you have as you find yourself on the cutting edge of your life? It a time for you to bring all the meaning you can to what you do…make it count! It’s the “edge” of your future, and it matters what you do with it!