Good health will end. Life will end. We need to consider that in our decisions about what we are doing with our life on a daily basis. A recent statistical study shows I have about five more years of good health ahead of me. What to do?

One of the pleasures of retirement is hearing a voice from the past calling you to re-establish contact. Our work life sometimes reaches out into our retirement life and touches us. It has a way of warming our old heart.

Popular culture focuses on the youth. Life goes through a continuing process of replicating itself. Of course that is good - in a way. But hard to accept when you are the one being discarded.

Neighbors are important and we might all find more comfort in life by engaging those close by rather than spending all of our time reaching across the world via Facebook for friends. We could at least give it a chance. It isn’t an all or nothing choice. There is no reason we can’t have both.

Everyone has stories to tell. Technology makes it possible for all of us to record our stories and share them with grandchildren and others. We love to tell them and we love to hear them.

I always just assumed that most people would be just like me and look at retirement as a gateway into freedom. Freedom to make a life, or create a life of your own choosing. Well, I was wrong. And wrong by a long way.

When it comes to retirement and getting around, the best answer seems to be to choose your location carefully. If you can walk and find anything you might need, or want, the problem of getting around can disappear – along with your car.

Within two days the whole world had turned. She was receiving lots of smiles back. People were laughing and talking with her. She was soon being invited to coffee or lunch. The next 14 years were very exciting and some of the happiest of her life.

Time to slow down and fix something is available to us in retirement. We do not have to rush off, wake to an alarm clock, punch a clock, or get to bed. We do not have to do as we are told or expected. We have time to fix it if we so choose.

What we learned as a teenager, a college student, a mature adult, a parent, and citizen intertwines and forges a strong yet pliable state of mind.We can afford the time to sit back and consider. A retired state of mind emerges that gives us the most comprehensive picture of the world we will ever have.