Tag: #dailyprompt

Posted in weekendcoffeeshare

#weekendcoffeeshare 9/17/2016

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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If we were having coffee this morning; actually, I would be having Hot Cinnamon Spice tea and serving you coffee, I am hoping you won’t mind if I whine a little about what a tough week I’ve had. Since you are my friends, and we share our weekly experiences together, I’m sure you will understand. It’s actually been both a good and a tough week.

Fall is coming to my part of the world. The leaves aren’t really getting color yet, but it is very dry here as it often is in September. The leaves are turning brown on a lot of the hardwood trees, like the oaks, and they are falling to the ground. I’m worried about some of my perennials. The leaves on my beautiful peonies are browning. I am watering them and I surely hope it isn’t too late to save them. I will be anxiously awaiting their arrival come spring, if I am still living here in the spring.

I planted a new little white birch tree this past spring and it has had its share of trouble. The wind has broken off parts of it twice. It is valiantly trying to survive. I know it can survive the winter as white birches survive the bitter cold in the north. I’m worried about it surviving the remaining heat and humidity, along with the dry weather here, before winter arrives. Like with the peonies, it is getting daily watering. I always like to have a white birch tree in my yard, though they are hard to grow here. It reminds me of my roots in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where they are so plentiful and beautiful.

I mentioned that I might not be living here when spring comes. Perhaps unfortunately, we all go through life changes and I may be about to go through a big one. It’s not the time for details yet but it could involve moving from my home. I will talk more about that to you when i know more. I do hope that I can stay here where I’ve been for 18 years. But, if I have learned one thing over the course of my life, it is that the only thing that is certain is change.

The change I may be facing is not one that I’ve wanted to happen but it may be necessary. I’ve been very sad about this change over the last few days. Enough said about that for now.

I am contemplating a new job in business consulting along with my writing career. I have been attending some meetings with regard to this job and it is fascinating. The changes in my life will have some impact on how involved I get in the consulting practice in the short run. I will keep writing as it is a catharsis for me. I have all kinds of new ideas for fiction and a plethora of ideas for non-fiction pieces. I’m excited to get started on these ideas. I don’t quite know what to write first!

I don’t know what this coming week holds for me, but I do know that I will be writing here on my blog. I hope all of you enjoy your coffee this morning. Thanks for letting me talk with you. Have a wonderful week! #weekendcoffeeshare #writing #amwriting #amblogging #dailyprompt

*#weekendcoffeeshare is sponsored by Parttimemonsterblog

Posted in Politics, The Economy, Travel

2016 US Presidential Election: Pneumonia or the Economy and Foreign Policy?

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

 

imageI am discouraged by American journalism. I am also discouraged that the American people don’t demand more from their journalists and their Presidential candidates. I will certainly be interested to watch the upcoming Presidential debates although we cannot forget that early voting will have already started in some states. It seems this Presidential race is a slog,  toward, at best, mediocrity.

Let’s look at what’s important. Hillary Clinton’s very temporary, very common bout with pneumonia is not important regarding this election. This is an illness any one of us could contract and recover from very quickly. THe press and her opponent have made a much bigger deal out of it than it is, probably to deflect attention from the other issues that they should be discussing. However, since these two candidates are the oldest ever running for the White House, it is appropriate that they release their health records.

Our biggest economic problem is jobs. We hear wholesale promises of jobs from Mr. Trump but he has no plan to magically manufacture them except he talks about bringing industry home. Home to what? Dilapidated plants that are light years behind technologically? In some cases, no plants or factories are left at all. Clinton has a jobs creation plan that will add about 10 million jobs during her first term. However, she also talks about the revitalization of the manufacturing sector and this writer thinks that is dreaming. She does plan to put people to work on the infrastructure which is desperately needed – if she can get funds from Congress.

It is a little more difficult to figure out Donald Trumps’s plan for jobs. He says he wants to bring back jobs from China, Japan, Vietnam, and other countries but he is not clear what he wants to bring them back to. WIthout a manufacturing and technology sector, Trump’s plan to bring back jobs seems to fall flat. He is also not in favor of raising the minimum wage.

WIth regard to foreign policy, Mr. Trump has very little experience. He is a nationalist. He is not in favor of many trade agreements with other countries or is for very strict terms. He wants to appease and support Russia while doing the opposite with China, seeing China as our enemy.  He does not support the Iran deal and does support strong men ruling the Middle East.

Mts. Clinton has been a diplomat for many years. Her foreign policy is based on diplomacy. She is very well-schooled on the issues facing the US from other countries in the world and would be one of the most knowledgeable leaders in modern times in foreign policy due to her background and her experience gained as Secretary of State.

One of the problems with this election is that the candidates nor the media are focusing on these or any other issues. Instead they are talking about Clinton’s illness or Trump’s medical history or tax returns. The American people should want to know these candidates’ stands on issues, not their personal extraneous issues. OTherwise, we cannot make informed voting positions.

If you understand the issues, get out and vote but educate yourself first so you can make an informed voting decision. #dailyprompt #2016presidentialelection #realDonaldTrump #HillaryClinton #amwriting #amblogging #writing #economy #foreignpolicy

 

Posted in Creative Nonfiction Essays, Lifestyle, Women's Issues

The Most Elegant Lady

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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I always blame my aunt for my credit card bills. Even though she has been gone now for a long time, she had great influence over me in many areas. Education. Behavior. The way I view my family. The way I view the world. And, perhaps unfortunately for me, the things that I like including clothes, accessories, and home furnishings.

My Aunt Red was the most elegant lady. She lived next door to me as i grew up. She was a fourth grade school teacher in a small elementary school in a county in northeastern Kentucky. She came from a county deep in the heart of eastern Kentucky. I’ve often wondered where she learned to be so refined, such a polished and stylish lady in a land where elegance wasn’t necessarily the norm. Survival was. I still can’t answer that question. But, I do remember seeing her reading Vogue Magazine years before anyone else around this part of the country knew what Vogue Magazine even was. In the 1920s, she was even a flapper girl!

Aunt Red was the definition of elegance in everything she was and did. She was dignified to a fault and graceful in her appearance and behavior. She dressed in a tasteful, yet simple, manner. But not cheap. Never cheap. Since she did not live in a place where designer clothes were available, she ordered them from nearby big cities. From stores like Saks. She started buying designer clothes for me when I was 12 and did so up until I left home at 20. Even after that, she would surprise me with clothes. The first designer piece of clothing she ever bought me was a black coat which I wish i had to this day. She taught me what to wear and what not to wear, lessons I remember still.

Do you see why I blame her for my clothing bills? Her lessons about appropriate, fine clothing are so ingrained in my head that I could not buy anything else if i tried and her lessons were taught to me 50 years ago.

But, Aunt Red was not all about clothes. She embodied elegance in many other ways. She was the glue that held our family together. Even more than my grandparents. After her death, I saw cracks start in my family. Cracks that have grown wider and deeper with time. Aunt Red helped people. She had many friends and, if it was within her power, she never let anyone suffer or want for anything. She took care of me, an only child, when my dad was working out of town and my mother couldn’t. She taught me to read at three years of age and put me in piano lessons at four. She was my second mother in every way that made a difference.

Aunt Red could go anywhere, fit in with any group of people, and look and sound like the best educated person in the room. She could discuss any subject and make any person to whom she spoke feel like they were the most important person she had ever met.

She passed away from a horrible, painful illness way too young. She never complained like the elegant lady she was, right to the end. The last thing she said to me, the night before she died, was to admonish me to finish my education. I loved her very much, as did everyone in my family. Every girl should have such a dignified, exquisite role model. I consider myself very lucky indeed. But i still blame her for my credit card bills! #amwriting #writing #amblogging #lifestyle

Posted in Music, Uncategorized

Fall is Like a Song

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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In my part of the world, fall is starting to arrive. Although not according to the calendar quite yet. Yesterday, I spent some time relaxing outside on my front porch. My porch looks out into the forest and onto the lightly traveled county road in front of my house. More often than not, there are more deer than cars trooping along that road, and in my front yard, making their way to the feeding troughs we keep full for them. As I sat on the porch, I was musing about how the woods look like fall and I fell into a reverie thinking of the melody, harmony, and beat of life, particularly in the fall.

Sometimes I think fall is my favorite time of year. Then I wonder why. Fall, in so many ways, is the end. The end of the summer, of good weather, of good times with our friends outdoors, of easy travel and easier living. I look around me as I sit on my porch and i see the beginnings of fall. My clematis are trying to produce a few of their fall blooms. The black-eyed susans and purple coneflowers are frantically blooming the last of their flowers. The oak, maple, and poplar trees are turning a dingy green with some yellowing of leaves. The sycamore maples will be the first to go. The underbrush is starting to die off.

The wildlife are particularly affected by the changing of the seasons. I hear the Canadian geese as they fly overhead. Heading south, honking as they go. Chipmunks are everywhere with their cheeks full of any nuts they can find, storing food for winter. The deer even look like fall. In the summer, their coats are a chestnut red. Now they are turning gray in order to blend in with the winter forest. I have seen the antlers of the two large bucks who come to the feeding troughs and they have gotten huge. At least eight points each. The fawns the does started to bring to feed early in the summer have grown up, except for a few, and are losing their spots and becoming less dependent on their mothers. We still have a few very small fawns and i am rooting for them to grow and grow fast so they will survive the winter.

The butterflies and hummingbirds are mostly gone now. Headed south on their long journey. Some of the birds are gone but many of the species indigenous to this area stay, foraging for food.

Where I live in the U.S., we have four distinct seasons, though not as distinct as they once were. Summer has been hot and humid this year. We have reached 90 degrees many days which is odd for this corner of the world. Of course, the world is heating up. The humidity has been higher than usual, more like the Gulf Coast than the Ohio Valley. Winters used to be hard with a lot of snow and ice. Not so much now with the heating of the earth. We once had big snows and we still sometimes do. But, they are an anomaly rather than a normal occurrence. It is still cold here in the winter but usually not the brutal cold of days gone by.

Still, there is fall, that in-between time. The time between hot and cold, between summer and winter, between the lush greenery that surrounds me and the stark hardness of a deciduous forest in winter. Fall is sometimes warm, sometimes cool. Preparing us for the cold of winter, for the hardships of winter. Making us forget the uncomfortable heat and humidity of a summer that has grown too hot for the place we call home. In the fall, we try to hang on to the rituals of summer as long as possible.

It occurred to me that the changing of the seasons is like a song. There is a melody and a harmony. Music has a melody and a harmony and so does seasonal change. Melody is usually defined as the main series of notes of a song that stand out and enable us to remember a song. I think of summer as the melody of the year. It is the main event. The series of notes that stand out to us, when the world is fresh, green, alive, singing. The transition to fall is the harmony. Harmony is the series of notes that are counter-melody. It is chords that are pleasing to the ear that complement melody much like  fall complements summer and eases our transition into winter.

The change of the seasons corresponds to the concept of beat in music. A constant rhythmic pulse that is never-ending. The beat is the skeleton of the seasonal change while the melody is summer and harmony is the seasonal transition. Beat, in music, in life, in the change of the seasons, is what you feel in your heart. Fall is like a song. #amwriting #writing #blogging #fall #music

Posted in Creative Nonfiction Essays, Uncategorized

Making Mistakes

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything. – Theodore Roosevelt

What a wise quote by President Teddy Roosevelt. We can all make a mistake. If we don’t, we are sitting at home with our hands folded in our laps. Mistakes can be large or small. Irrelevant in the grand scheme of your life or life-changing. Usually, when we make a big, life-changing mistake, we surely don’t realize it at the time. We either think what we were doing was not all that important or we were convinced we were doing the right thing. It’s only when things start to go wrong and we look back do we realize we made a mistake.

Why does making a mistake bother us so much? I think the reasons are many but one is that it shows us our vulnerability. We have analyzed a situation incorrectly. On top of that, many of us may not realize it, but we have limited and fragile support systems. Those support systems may collapse if we make a mistake as there may be judgment and criticism involved. Some societies even cast out those who have made a mistake. In the United States, people who make a mistake are usually not cast out explicitly, but they may be implicitly. They certainly may be shunned. For all these reasons, along with the fear of being hurt, we have a deep-seated fear of making mistakes which makes us less creative in our lives.

We cannot avoid making mistakes due to changes in the world around us. Most change in the world we cannot see. It happens slowly and subtly and our actions often cannot keep up with it. So when we take an action, it is a mistake because change has happened that we are not aware of. The older we get, the more we usually fight change. The more we allow ourselves to be flexible and bend with change, the fewer mistakes we will make.

Even though it doesn’t feel like it when we make a mistake, there are benefits to be had. Some of them are: Mistakes deepen our knowledge. They help us see what matters and what does not. They allow us to see if someone in our life has changed or has not. They can teach us to value forgiveness. They can serve as a warning. They can give us a new insight.

There are many more lessons we can learn from mistakes. But we have to get beyond the pain we feel at making the mistake in order to learn the lessons.

When we realize that mistakes are part of the inevitable flow of life, we can relax and handle them better. It won’t take away the pain of making the mistake, but it will help us understand why we made the mistake and learn the lessons we should from it. #amwriting #blogging #writing

 

Posted in Creative Nonfiction Essays, education, Higher Education, Lifestyle, Uncategorized

The Millennial Generation: Overtaking the Baby Boomers?

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

The millennial generation is generally defined as that group of individuals in the U.S.  born between 1980 and 2000. We are hearing a lot about the millennials currently, particularly with regard to how they may affect the 2016 U.S. Presidential election and how they are affecting the workplace. My series of articles on the Baby Boom generation, born between 1946 and 1964, would not be complete without drawing some obvious comparisons between that generation and the millennial generation.

  1.  The millennial generation is now the largest generation, in sheer numbers of people. They actually outnumber the huge baby boom generation by about 10 million people, even though their population is increased by immigrants. The Brookings Institute says that by 2020, 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. will be a millennial.
  2. Baby boomers married, in 1970, when the men were about 23.5 yrs of age and women were a little over 20. Millennials marry when men are, on average, 29 and women are 27. Up to 25% of millennials will never marry at all.
  3. Millennials are a more diverse group than baby boomers. Only 57% of millennials are white and 72% of baby boomers are white. Both Hispanic and Asian immigrants have increased the diversity in the U.S.
  4. About 2/3 of millennials ages 25-32 do not have a college degree. Those that do earn almost $20,000 per year more than those with only a high school diploma. It is an impossible comparison in this category with baby boomers since a high school diploma bought much more for them than it does for millennials. You will hear that millennials are over-educated and underemployed. You can see from this statistic that is not necessarily true, though millennials may think it is true. One truth is that, those who sought a higher education, are paying dearly for it in student loan debt.
  5. We often hear about the unemployment rate of the millennials. If the millennials went to college, their unemployment rate is only 3.8%. Without the college degree, it is over 12%. So, if millennials further their education, their unemployment rate is much lower than that of the general population. They are pickier about their jobs than the baby boomers. They will take less money and have a job they enjoy more, unlike the boomers. The baby boomers would work at just about anything in order to survive. Many millennials have had a safety cushion in the form of parents and family to fall back on. That was not necessarily true for the baby boomers.

There is quite a disparity in the characteristics of the baby boomer generation and the millennial generation. The U.S. now has a service economy and we surely need workers for that type of economy. However, with two-thirds of the millennials not having college degrees, this writer wonders who is going to teach our children, do our research and development, be our medical doctors, innovate products, and so many other jobs that need those credentials. Does this mean that we will have to import foreign labor that place a higher value on higher education to do these skilled tasks, such as the Asians? I understand that higher education is expensive and that student loan debt is high. Our politicians must address this if we want our young people to take over our country as the older generations retire. #dailyprompt #writing #blogging #amwriting #millennials #babyboomers

Posted in Healthy eating, Lifestyle, Uncategorized, Women's Issues

Baby Boomers: Obsessed with Staying Young?

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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I may do a series of articles on the topic of baby boomers. I am one. I’m interested in the characteristics of all generations, but I’ll start with the boomers. Are we baby boomers obsessed with staying young? Baby boomers, in the U.S. were born between 1946 and 1964. The post World War II generation. There are many characteristics and issues I could blog about regarding we baby boomers but, in this post, I’m going to write about whether or not we have an obsession with youth. Are baby boomers obsessed with staying young?

Right away, I will tell you how I feel so you will know my particular bias. My answer is an unqualified yes. Of course, not every member of a group have the same characteristics so there are undoubtedly many boomers out there who are growing old gracefully. I just don’t happen to be one of them. I don’t think the majority of boomers are growing old gracefully. I intend to fight growing old – kicking and screaming if necessary. Yes, I know that, ultimately, it won’t help. But, I can try. I can take care of myself from a physical, mental, and emotional standpoint. I can do all I can do.

I contend that doing all you can do to take care of yourself and, yes, even fighting to stay young is not only an exercise in self-preservation but a positive outlook on life. Is it such a bad thing to want to look, think, and feel as young as possible? I don’t think so. I think many baby boomers would agree with me. Even doctors agree with me.  They say that people with a positive, young outlook and those who actively try to stay healthy, mentally and physically, tend to live longer and stay healthier

There are billions of dollars spent every year on anti-aging products and treatments. Since the baby boomers started getting older, the segment of the market offering anti-aging products and services has taken a huge jump and is expected to skyrocket by 2019. Not only do many of us not want to quit work, we also don’t want to get old, however you define old. We use treatments and potions on our faces and bodies. We get tucks here and there. We get shots of Botox and other fillers in our faces. We take our Vitamin D and stay out of the sun. We get facials, waxes, implants, dental work, and full-fledged face lifts when necessary. It isn’t your grandmother’s generation. I don’t see anything wrong with any of it.

What don’t we do? The very things that would make a difference. We don’t eat right, at least not as well as we should, and we don’t exercise as much as we should. Both can and do slow aging. There are pathways in our biology that can be used to manipulate aging. For example, the simple act of fasting can slow down the aging process. Short periods of fasting work. Intermittent fasting, or longer periods of fasting, work even better. Other techniques to slow the aging process can be learned from the people of Okinawa. They eat very lightly and only certain foods. They do practice fasting. Fasting shuts down growth and metabolism pathways.These people  live to be considerably over 100 years old and work into their 90s. The books written about their way of life are fascinating

Even for boomers who eat well, the downfall for many of us boomers is exercise. Exercise is an elixir for we who want to delay aging. We just choose not to drink it as often as we should. Exercise changes the way our genes work.

The good news is that there are ways to delay aging. When we reach late middle age, things start happening. Medical conditions happen. Some we can get under control. If we practice some of the techniques that science know work, we can delay the aging process. We can help that along, regarding physical appearance, with some of our treatments and potions. Of course, genetics plays a role. We have to start with the basics.

More to come on baby boomers and aging. Here is a link to one of the books on the people of Okinawa. It is fascinating reading. #amwriting #writing #blogging #BabyBoomers

The Okinawa Program: How the World’s Longest LIved People Achieve Everlasting Health and How You Can Too

 

Posted in Non-fiction

My Mother’s German Clock

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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My mother was a hard, cold woman. There is no need to sugar coat it, though I hate to say it. That was, quite simply. her personality. That doesn’t mean I didn’t love her. I did. I just didn’t like her very much most of the time. I spent my life, or perhaps her life, trying to please her. I don’t need all my ten fingers to count the times I heard her laugh in the 48 years she lived while I was alive. I don’t remember what her face looked like when she smiled. She smiled so seldom.

My mother was depressed. Perhaps clinically depressed but, back then, those diagnoses were seldom made so who really knows what was wrong. But, her problems are only tangential to this story. The story of my mother’s German clock.

My mother loved her brothers and sisters almost desperately. She never really separated from that family and embraced my dad and I. One brother, my Uncle Tincy, was particularly special. They were close in age and grew up together. I think separating from him when he left home to join the Air Force broke her heart.

My mother and my uncle always stayed in close touch. His family, including his three children – my cousins, were always close to me. When they would come “home” from being stationed at one Air Force Base and before moving to another, they would often stay with us during the move. My mother cherished every day she got to spend with her brother and with his family. It was during those times that she seemed happiest.

Uncle Tincy was stationed, at one point, in Germany. Before he left Germany, he sent just about all of his siblings a beautiful German clock. I was grown up by then and had left home, but I will never forget when I came for a visit and my mother had received her clock from her brother. For once in her life, she was glowing as she showed me her clock, hanging in a place of honor on the wall. To her, it was not only beautiful, but a symbol of her brother’s love.

Later in both of our lives, my dad passed away and my mother had to live with me because she was very ill. Of course, the German clock from my Uncle Tincy came with her and hung in a place of honor on a wall of my home. Every day, my mother dusted and polished it. She made sure it was wound properly, right up until a couple of days before she died. It made her happy as almost nothing did.

Today, sixteen years after my mother’s death, the German clock still hangs in a place of honor in my home. It has been taken to the clockmaker, cleaned, repaired, and runs  like new. Mom would be proud. I’ve taken over the task of cleaning and polishing it. It keeps perfect time. When I look at it, I think of my mother, with whom I had a strained relationship and who was so unhappy most of the time. I think of my wonderful Uncle Tincy who could perform some sort of magic to make her happy. I remember how she smiled when she looked at that clock. Now, I smile, with a tear in my eye, as I remember what a beautiful German clock did for my mother all those years ago. #amwriting #writing #blogging #depression #dailyprompt

Posted in Creative Nonfiction Essays, Non-fiction

Terrorism and the American Spirit

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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The American society is losing its ability to be carefree. When I talk to most of my friends, they express great prudence and caution when they speak of things they would like to do. Events that involve a crowd, for example. Many, perhaps most, of my friends won’t even think of attending an event, indoors or out, where they would be in a crowd. Some of my friends won’t fly the friendly skies anymore. More of my family and friends won’t even consider visiting a large city now. All of these things represent a major shift in the culture of America.

Americans were never afraid to do any of these things. They were all part of our lives. What changed? I think the change began on 9/11/2001 when terrorists knocked down the Twin Towers in New York City. About three months after that, I flew to Europe several times and the big Air France and Delta planes I was on were practically empty.

I have friends who won’t go to their favorite sporting events…..football and basketball games, because they are in big arenas. I am a fan of a particular college basketball team. If I could get tickets to games played by that team, I would go. The arena seats 24,000 people. Terrorism be damned.

Last summer, I was in Boston on the 4th of July. We considered going to hear the Boston Pops with a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people. We didn’t. Partly because of the traffic. Partly because of the remembrance of the bombing of the Boston Marathon. Terroism won the day.

Lots of people won’t go to concerts now and listen to their favorite music live and in person. They fear that such a large crowd in an indoor or outdoor arena is ripe for terrorism. Perhaps. My friend and I have a concert schedule for the summer and fall and we are going to several concerts we know we will enjoy. Terrorism be damned.

The American people are scared. There are crazy people who want to kill us. Why? There are many theories. Some say that it is because we have interfered in their wars. That may be part of it. I have another theory. Because of the way of life and culture of the people who say they want to kill Americans, they have not been as prosperous as the U.S. has. They haven’t been invited to the economic party. They hate us for our prosperity.

We can’t let them win. We can’t hide in our homes. We must go on with our lives. We have to take ahold of the American spirit and way if we are carefree again. #amwriting #writing #blogging #terrorism #dailyprompt

 

Posted in weekendcoffeeshare

#weekendcoffeeshare 7/16/16

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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My friend, Jenn, with whom I usually have my #weekendcoffeeshare, is on vacation this week. So, I want to talk about what I think she and I might discuss if she were here.

If we were having coffee, I would share with you my musings about what it means to be over 60. It’s not so old, but we are entering the last quarter of our lives. It gives one pause. It makes one re-evaluate one’s life. It makes you realize that you have only one life and question whether you are doing what you want to do with it. Are you happy? Truly happy? Do you want to keep on with your life as it is? Is your life fulfilling at its core being?

Now for the big question. Are you living your life out of obligation to others? Is there room in your in your life for you? Life in our 60s can be unpredictable. We tend to have  built up a number of obligations over the years. We feel like we have to respond to the needs of those obligations, whether they are adult children, grandchildren,  elderly parents, or work. Maybe you don’t have as many obligations now. Could be your children have moved away. Your parents are gone now. You’ve retired. You suddenly have time on your hands for the first time in maybe 30 yeas. Do you feel lost?

By 60, you may have even suffered one or more major losses in your life — family members, perhaps a spouse. Life after 60 can have its share of health issues and this can be unpredictable. Do you get checkups and practice preventive medicine so you can live your longest, best life?

I keep coming back to the same question. Are you living your life for others or is there room in it for you? Life after 60 feels different than life before 60. Look around at the people between the ages of 30-60. They are rushing around, in a hurry. They have jobs, small children, many obligations to meet in any one day. After 60, it all slows down. Even if you have obligations, you can take more time in meeting them. You can sort out the obligations you want to keep and those you can dispose of. Most people, after 60, have more time for themselves, or should.

If you are around 60, you are part of the Baby Boomer generation. Almost 10,000 Boomers are retiring per day now. You are not alone. But, now is the time to rediscover your passions. What are your hobbies? What were they before you got so busy with life? Photography? Sketching? Travel? Writing? Give one of your passions a try. See if you catch fire again. If not, think about what you are passionate about now, then go for it. It is never too late.

Whatever you do, it can’t be another chore. It has to be a joy. It has to make your core being feel happiness. Remember that you are in your last quarter of your life. It’s time not to care about what the world thinks anymore. I don’t! It’s time to please YOU. We pass this way only once. Find your passion and do it!

There is a book you might enjoy. It’s called “The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Mid-Life” by Marc Freedman. You can find it at amazon.com. #weekendcoffeeshare #dailyprompt #amwriting #writing #blogging

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