One Year

This month marks one full year of retirement for me.  The time has certainly flown by and if I tell you this has been the best year of my life I don't think I would be exaggerating by much (or any).

I was perusing a compendium of articles extracted from various sources by my Zite app tonight, each more depressing than the one before.  It seems that us Boomers are woefully unprepared for retirement having saved practically bubkus.  Our homes are worth less, our health is not as good as the previous generation's, we will need to work in retirement (an oxymoron if I ever heard one) and health costs will cripple us. Pensions are non-existent, we have too much debt and we are heading for sad, lonely ends.

I was about to exit out of this depressing mess when this article caught my eye: You Can Retire Now, Lead a Sacred Life and Find True Joy by Bruce Davis, PhD.  Yes!  At last a true ray of hope for us Boomers and a spot-on description of exactly how I feel about my own retirement. 

Here's his opening paragraph and his article goes on to include other comforting insights:

You can retire now, and you don't need a list of things to do or a new hobby. You don't have to wait for grandchildren, need a golf course nearby, or make a map full of places to visit. You can retire without meetings to attend, workshops to take, and dates to fill Friday and Saturday night. You can retire and not spend your retirement on the Internet, glued to your desk, or trying to be forever 40 years old. You can retire without a full calendar. You can have no calendar and be perfectly satisfied. You can retire and not spend your life being entertained. You can turn off the television and be free. You can retire, and you don't have to be productive. You don't have to be doing anything. There are other priorities than working and trying to conquer this feeling that there will never be enough. There are satisfactions other than a pay check, being important in your company, or being always the provider. There is another identity. You can retire and simply be happy, inspired, and full of the joy of life.

I can indeed. I am!  Life is very very good...