Page 23 - Senior Link Magazine Winter 2022 - Online Magazine

EXCEPTIONAL SENIORS

There were also my
friends who had
passed on before
me, reminding me
that time moves
on, and we all age
and face different
challenges before
it’s over. How do I
want to spend my
remaining years?
In their book, Ikigai,
Héctor García
and Francesc
Miralles remind us to “Live in the moment. Stop
regretting the past and fearing the future. Today
is all you have. Make the most of it. Make it worth
remembering.”

Eventually, I made a list of things that I would
“get” to do in retirement: stay fit, stay active, give
back, travel, live in a foreign country, become a
certified T’ai Chi Chih instructor, learn Spanish,
learn to weave (we have a loom, why not use it?),
read, and volunteer. I was ready and made a public
announcement in January 2020.

In January 2020, I let my board know the time
was right for me to retire. All was going according
to plan—until March 2020, when the pandemic
changed all plans. It delayed but did not stop my
moving forward with retirement. In August, SPFB
announced that Dina Jeffries would become our
new CEO. My last day was the last day of August
2020.

Keren and I took a couple of weeks to hide out in
Taos. Then I started working on the things I get
to do but don’t have to do. I continue to run with
friends three or four mornings a week. I met new
friends when I started attending T’ai Chi Chih™
and strength training classes at the UMC Activities
Center. Relationships have been and will continue
to be important to me. I love meeting people. I
serve on some community boards, getting to sit
on the other side of the table. Keren and I are
traveling, and I am getting to use my Spanish on
occasion. And I get to say “no” or “not today” to
things I don’t have to do . . . and I get to take naps.

Lubbock Senior Link 23