We are often hesitant to move into our next chapter and retire from our 40+ years career because we are not sure what we will do with our time. We now have an extra 8 or 9 hours each day to do something else than work at a job. Besides not knowing what to do with our time, we hear many retired women talk about trips to Bali and other areas of the world ad not all of us want to go abroad. In this episode I am talking with Barb Geiger who found her purpose while traveling through many states from Minnesota to Louisiana and ending her trip in New Orleans at the Gulf of Mexico. Leaving your home and getting out of your comfort zone to answer a calling of faith with your husband is a heartwarming and inspiring journey. Being open to new experiences during retirement has brought Barb amazing adventures, broadened her world, and given her a passion to connect with others through writing. In this episode Barb shares about the kayak service trip on the Mississippi with her husband, during which they learned about dozens of charity organizations by volunteering with them and blogging about what they do. Maria and Barb discuss the joy that volunteer work can give and how this can boost social engagement and the opportunity to create friendships when you are retired. Barb also loves to tell about how she came to write an award-winning memoir about her kayak service trip and a poetry chapbook about the Mississippi River, to encourage listeners to use time in retirement to write their own stories. Don’t miss this episode as it is jam-packed with stories and experiences of a woman that embraced the beauty of her country and found a way to create the journey of a lifetime by listening to her heart and be courageous. You can find her blog about the kayak trip and how the book got published here: https://paddleforapurpose.net or if you want to get I touch with Barb : www.barbgeiger.com