SIMPLICITY AND TIMELESSNESS

We Americans love our consumerist stuff, and spend our whole lives attempting to acquire it. We are so lucky, in comparison to other regions of the world, that we can achieve this goal with relative ease.

This quest drives the lives of more Americans than not. It leads us to distraction and the feeling that we will never have quite enough or as much as some others.

I have wonderful news for you all, which I gained by slipping down the economic ladder. For the majority of us Americans, we indeed do have enough things from which to craft a comfortable and satisfying life. I'm speaking from the perspective of one who dwelled in the middle of the middle class, not as someone who has struggled a lifetime just to stay even.

I very much suspect that a majority of Boomers haven't really done a good job at getting ready for senior citizenship. From my West Coast observations, it appears that most of our generation has spent decades in quest for all that consumerist stuff. Now, if we're lucky, we're entering our senior years. Many of our careers are becoming obsolete and we're being encouraged to or forced to move over. And I can advise from the other side of that predicament: don't panic.

Keep calm and simplify.

Get your affairs in order. Take inventory of all that stuff. Figure out which stuff is baggage, and which stuff is treasure. Get a clear picture of what your assets are, because this is it, folks. After you are done being scared, take long walks and deep breaths, then count your blessings. Most of us have many more blessings than we realize. And if you haven't noticed already, all that stuff isn't the meaning of life. The meaning of life always has been and currently is all around you, and equally important, within you.

Next, allow yourself to take the most fabulous step of all - release yourself from that literal clock that has ruled most of your life. Keep your appointments and dates, but otherwise live your days at your very own personal pace. You will find the illusion of timelessness. That absence of that domination by the clock, that feeling of timelessness, is the most peaceful and luxurious gift given to those of us who have left the workforce for good. 

Hopefully at this stage of life you know who your true self is, so spend your hours dabbling at or charging towards whatever pleases you most. You own your hours now. So I say, see you in the realms of peace, happiness, and contentedness.