“Empathy begins with understanding life from another person’s perspective.
Nobody has an objective experience of reality.
It’s all through our own individual prisms.”

— Sterling K. Brown

My writing about not retiring and becoming a member of the ranks of the “Unretired” has both confused people and created all sorts of interesting conversations.

To end the confusion, I have never retired. However, I did reach the age that at which society grants retirement. The world has changed greatly since my parents and grandparents looked forward to this transition in their lives.

Though I have worked and saved modestly for the years when I won’t be working for money, I am just one member of the trend of individuals who are choosing not to step away from their careers but rather to reinvent, reposition, and recast themselves into roles reflective of their passions, experience, and desire to contribute.

There is no longer a specific age when you need to step away from working roles or philanthropic contributions to start a new phase of life.

I am discovering that my age 65 is not my parents or grandparents experience of age 65. If I prioritize my own health I can be as active as I choose for as long as I choose, God willing.

So I chose.

This declaration has also called out my awareness of how cultivating passions and continuing contribution has been happening around me for most of my life. Friends and colleagues have volunteered their stories of how they are choosing to use their time and with whom they are choosing to spend their time. It is inspiring!

These conversations about intentional choice have led to conversations about discovering one’s agency in life; understanding what power is and how one has chosen and how one chooses to assert that power in the world.

One gift of aging is the perspective of what is within your control and what is not. And the clarity of the values you hold most dearly guiding every action, reaction, and decision.

The world is very volatile, fractious, and filled with challenges. Life is never easy nor fair. Yet at the same time, wondrous and filled with opportunity and individuals who try to contribute to the well-being of the whole system every day. I live to be a member of the tribe who shoulders their responsibilities and walks through the world as a helper.

There is still so much to learn. And I am learning.

I still have room to grow and evolve. And I am open to it all.

I still make mistakes. And need to double-back on some actions with healing and repair.

I am still discovering the best use of my strengths, my worth and the courage to stand up and speak up.

Along the way I meet some wonderful people, engage in expansive activities, and navigate the day I am given.

Things seem to become clearer and simpler when I let go of the need to control.

With every conversation there is the gift of a new lesson.

Maybe I will let go of the label ‘Unretired’ as this journey called life doesn’t benefit from our need to label or make rules about how we should be making the trip.

• Have you any thoughts?
• Observations?
• Ruminations?
• Or stories of how you are making the most of your life?

As always, I am rediscovering that the adventure of living is more fun when made with a friend or a group.

Leslie