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Showing posts from November, 2018

What Happens When You Get Your Life Back--For This, I Am Grateful

This fall I’ve been privileged to teach a fair number of Road Next Taken classes.  I’m always overwhelmed when in the space of a one time, 1 1/2 hour class, participants not infrequently crack open the window into their soul and share what’s there. For the majority, retirement is simultaneously wonderful and frightening.  They’re uncertain about what they also feel certain about.  Surprised that tomorrow can be challenging in ways they never imagined.  So happy that they don’t have to go to work in the morning while wondering what this day...and the next...and the next might be. Like me.   Like me, they wanted their lives back; they got them; and now what?  What does happen when you get your life back?   Is it handed to you on the metaphorical silver platter?  Or do you have to rummage around in the kitchen drawer to find it?   Is it what you expected, anticipated, planned for or does it end up being none of the above? T...

The LCD of Happiness

Let’s face it.  In the ongoing spate of bad weeks, last week really took the cake. I wish I had a nickle for every time I shut off the television or radio in frustration.  Anger.  Sadness.  Only after yelling, “Oh, shut up!”  at the commentator or guest or whatever.  Come Sunday, I decided I needed to pull myself of the Rut of Desperation.  I took some of my own advice and concentrated on the LCD of Happiness. What is the LCD of Happiness, you might ask? It's the Lowest Common Denominator (and Determiner) of Happiness. I teach that we are responsible for finding, celebrating, feeling grateful for the smallest things—the lowest common denominator—in our lives.  It's not always easy; life is strange that way, isn't it?  But it is possible. The following is a sampling of what bubbled up when I mulled over what factors were contributing to my personal LCD of Happiness. A bra fitting.  This would fall into the "Never Have I E...