Meaningful relationships, friendship, family, belonging and making room for both connection and time to yourself.
“Have you thought about joining a group?” It’s a familiar suggestion when someone mentions feeling lonely or wanting more connection in retirement. A book club, perhaps. A walking group. A committee that would be delighted to put our years of experience to good use. There’s nothing wrong with any of those suggestions. But I sometimes […]
Research on how adults talk with young children suggests which kinds of grandparent phrases are most likely to last, from ‘Do you remember when…?’ to ‘You worked hard on that’.
Research on eye contact, brief exchanges and culture suggests that returning a stranger’s smile, or even just meeting their eye, matters more than it seems.
Research on what grandchildren value points to eight simple things, from undivided attention and shared hobbies to family stories and staying close to their parents.
The art of grandparenting: 8 things that make grandchildren look forward to your visits Read More »
My partner and I have been retired for a long time now, and we have finally adjusted well to sharing this stage of life. I enjoy that. There is something lovely about being able to spend time together without having to squeeze it around work. But it took time. Knowing each other well didn’t mean
I have relocated many times during my life—sometimes for work, sometimes for lifestyle reasons and sometimes because moving felt like the right next step. Each move brought new experiences, new places and new people into my life. But it also meant leaving people behind. There were work colleagues I once saw almost every day, friends
I didn’t suddenly find myself alone in my 60s—the connections that had held my life together simply began to disappear I did not expect connection to be one of the hardest parts of retirement. I had prepared myself—or at least I thought I had. I had worked out the finances. I had a bucket list.
A woman I’ll call Helen told me that the hardest moment wasn’t the day her youngest child moved out. That day was far too busy for reflection. There were boxes, missing phone chargers and several tense discussions about whether a pot plant could reasonably be transported upright in the passenger seat. There was a final
The retirees who feel most at home in their lives aren’t the ones with the fullest calendars — they’re the ones who kept three quiet connections intact when everything else changed.
A few months into my retirement, I had a moment I wasn’t expecting. I was sitting at the kitchen table on a Tuesday morning. No calendar pulling at me, no inbox tightening my chest. Just three empty hours and a cup of coffee I’d forgotten to drink. And what I felt wasn’t the freedom I’d
The question I sat with for three months after I retired Read More »
