Have you taken a risk lately? I’m stepping out there just now to create a new blog and I seek your help. If you are a baby boomer, know any boomers, or wish you were one, then this is the place for you. My blog is intended as a venue for sharing thoughts about the transition from a life-time career to the freedom of retirement. But wait! No one talks about retirement today. It’s about reinvention, refiring, reimagining, redefining and for good reasons. Rocking chairs are out of style. The “retirees” I know are as active as ever, using their skills and education to make a difference in public service, mission work, new part-time jobs. They are working on new college degrees, traveling around the world, serving meals to the homeless, and advocating to end human trafficking. This is where you come in. What are you doing, or what do you dream of doing, in the second act of your life? Share your thread and let’s see what happens.
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faithtofigs@myblog 
I’m a Boomer and my husband is a member of the Silent Generation. I’ve been retired for two years, he for ten. For the first year and a half of my retirement our lives revolved around caring for our twin grandchildren a day each week. I’m not much for taking risks – never have been. But since they moved a seven hour drive away I’m ready to have a few adventures!
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Thanks Rhoda. Perhaps your adventures actually began during your career and are waiting to be continued.
Have you been involved in foreign travel or service? Have you taken on leadership responsibilities recently?
Caring for grandchildren is a gift to you and to the children. As they grow they will look to you as a model
of good living and wow—what an opportunity to teach them about healthy risk-taking!
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A major adventure of my life began nine years ago. It involved a cute little farmhouse in central PA with a worn weathered FOR SALE sign posted on the door. I stepped out of my comfort zone and bought it as an investment property and perhaps later a retirement home. I loved the place in spite of needed work. The initial repairs were significant: replacement of the leaking roof and a new porch floor. I cleaned and painted, created a garden by the summer kitchen and filled it with colorful snapdragons and daisies, bought a new stove and refrigerator, and hung a pretty wreath on the front door. It was a delightful old house! While I was working and living elsewhere, various tenants made their homes there. One couple started their marriage in my house, another had their first baby, others worked on hobbies quietly or entertained friends. Over a nine-year period many happy events occurred in that charming house.
With the passing of time I realized my little country house needed a new owner. Circumstances changed and I was weary from managing the business and constantly fixing up. I decided to sell my little piece of paradise and with bittersweet feelings found an enthusiastic buyer. She and her husband will add their special touches to “my” house in the country. Another bedroom or loft and extra bathroom are on their minds. It will be lovely. So what was the greater risk for me? Was it the purchase of a charming old house with a leaking roof and broken down porch that kept me challenged as I made it beautiful and safe again? Or was it the decision to let go of the dream and place that I’d come to love and pass the responsibility to someone younger and equally smitten with the charm? The first was a healthy risk. It engaged me in new challenges and taught me many lessons. It gave me a workplace for my imagination and physical energy. The latter is more difficult for me. It requires emotional effort to let go, be grateful for the happiness once had, and trust that something special is on the horizon. With time I will appreciate being relieved of the worries and know it was the right thing to do. Right now I am still a bit shaken by my own decision.
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