Best of the Boomer Blogs Rides Again!

IMGP4184I am always thrilled with synchronicity in my life. So when our brand new blog carnival member Linda Myers, presented me with a post about her writing group focused on the phrase: “What do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” I had to go back and see what I said eleven years ago.

That phrase was presented to me in mid-midlife crisis in 2004. Here is what I answered: Become my best self, discover, honor and contribute my best skills, find more fun and meaning, while also finding right livelihood. I am so happy to say the results have been marvelous.

Remember: What you focus on grows!

Vashon IslandHere’s what Linda shares with us today on her “Thoughts of a Bag Lady in Waiting” blog: Six bloggers, me included, have been gathering for a few days in October at Lavender Hill Farm, on Vashon Island, near Seattle. This year we had a writing workshop which turned out to be more powerful than we had anticipated. Our final ten-minute write was based on the final line of a Mary Oliver Poem, “The Summer Day”: What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?   At the end of the post there are links to the writing of the other bloggers.

Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting is on the road again, this week visiting family in Vermont. The route of choice is the New York Thruway, a road taken since she was a little girl. Read about her reminiscences and current trip: On the road again: The New York Thruway… 

Tom autumn trees pictureIt seems we are all waxing philosophical this time of year…Tom Sightings takes a Walk in October to see the sights, and recalls an old poem about how “The golden rod is yellow, the corn is turning brown, the trees in apple orchards with fruit are bending down.” Follow him to the end for a nice, tasty surprise! Nice sentiments Tom.

As an older adult, do you watch your salt intake? This week Rita R. Robison, On The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide, writes about a salt shakerconsumer group taking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to court over the agency’s failure to regulate and reduce the excess salt in our food supply. The Center for Science in the Public Interest says the FDA’s failure to reduce the sodium in packaged and other foods is contributing to tens of thousands of premature deaths annually due to stroke, heart disease, and other health problems.

IMGP4276I’ve been focused on the pure beauty of southern Colorado in the fall. Such lovely sunrises and sunsets. Life is good in retirement land….

Paradise is Personal

IMGP6491

“Paradise is where I want to wake up every morning… where I can be the way I want to be.” — Huerfano: A Memoir of Life in the Counterculture

When we were certain we would not be able to work full-time again, Mike and I began considering our options back in 2013. Where would we find our own inexpensive paradise?

After a quick trip down to Cuenca Ecuador in September, we decided to take a closer look at southern Colorado. Mike had an idea that the Huerfano west of Walsenburg might be a good place to begin our search, so we came down here and camped at Lathrop State Park. As luck would have it, we drove right into our first Octoberfest that fall!

Between the fantastic mountains views, the friendly people, the mild climate, the dark skies at night, and the completely reasonable land prices, we decided to research Navajo Ranch further, and the more we learned, the more we liked this area. It had its own water district, electric and phone service already present, and lots priced between $10,000 and 15,000. We returned in December to look at specific lots.

IMGP2959

We found it difficult to distinguish one lot from another and hard to tell which lots were for sale. But as luck would have it, the only one we got out to look at more closely was the one we ended up buying in January 2015!

Then all we had to do was go back to Fort Collins, sell our home, and say goodbye to our life of 20+ years up there, a task that turned out to be far more difficult than expected.

To read the whole story behind our great leap of faith, check out my Memoir of Retirement: From Suburbia to Solar and please follow us on TWITTER!