Retirement presents its own set of options. We are no longer limited by earning an economic livelihood. We are free in a way that we may have never experienced. What is important is making a choice. Retirement gives us the space and opportunity to choose. We can do if we so desire.

Having and maintaining good friends is not always easy. People move and people die. I recently heard of a novel attempt to answer this need; technological innovation that holds some promise of relief for the situation: Computers that feel like dogs, hear like people, and talk in whatever dialect you choose.

Retirement grants us an opportunity to take a close look at weather and how it might affect our daily lives. Many are the retired people who move miles from where they have worked to live a more comfortable life in their later years. They want to live where the sun always shines.

Today my first book review: Ready to Rightsize, A step-by-step guide to your rightsizing journey: for older adults and their loved ones” by Jeannine Bryant. Like me, she is a Midwesterner by birth and seems to be able to put a lot of thought into a few words.

Expectations are something we retired people may need to give a bit more attention. Because we retire doesn’t mean we have to sit on a shelf. We need to prepare for retirement. Some questions we need to explore are: Where are we going to live? What are we going to do to be engaged? How will we get around? And how will we maintain or create a social network?

We think about what we want to do with our life and then develop habits that fulfill those thoughts. Not all of us do that. Some of us probably just fall into one thing or another. We don't sit down and consider just exactly what we want to do with our lives.

These past two weeks I received two letters that call for a response. One having to do with the Conversation I discussed in episode 644 concerning end of life issues. Sometimes we have to modify our wishes with reality. Once again the existentialist win the day. Sysiphus smiles and leans against his rock and pushes it up the hill. He has learned to love his rock.

We sat around tables in the Vancouver Library for the entire day trying to figure out what we could do to help guide our communities of families, neighbors and countries in a more environmentally aware way. Our general conclusion was that we need to share our stories with our children, with our grandchildren and with our neighbors.

Most of us are not going to go gently into the night while being in a deep, peaceful sleep. So let’s give our families the gift of planning ahead, so they don’t have to make really hard decisions when we’re sick, without knowing exactly what we really want.

I know, breathing is natural. We do it without thinking, but sometimes - we forget. It seems that when we look at computer screens or television screens we change our ordinary breathing patterns. It is called screen apnea.