Passing Through

This blog is written by Lee Gale Gruen to help retirees, those soon to retire, baby boomers, and seniors reinvent themselves in this new stage of their lives called retirement. Her blog, public lecture, and new self-help book on senior reinvention are titled: Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement Years: Find Joy Excitement, and Purpose After You Retire. Her memoir is: Adventures with Dad: A Father and Daughter’s Journey Through a Senior Acting Class. Books descriptions follow her blog below. Both books are available at Amazon.com by clicking here and here. Her website is: LeeGaleGruen.com

CHITCHAT: I read a poem for Valentine’s Day on a local TV station. You might enjoy it. Here is the link: https://reflect-rossmoortv.cablecast.tv/store-4/3559-Valentine-s-Day-The-Hu-v1/vod.mp4

Now, on to my blog:

We are all travelers just passing through. We rail, stomp our feet, and carry on about this and that. It all seems so urgent – – so important. But, one day, we will be replaced by younger railers, stompers, and carriers. They will behave like us, just with different faces.

So, what’s it all about, Alfie? Is it worth the anger, vitriol, stress, and everything else that we subject ourselves and others to? All the huffies that we drag from one decade to the next seem like a giant burden, and often the reason is minimal or forgotten completely.

As a teenager, obnoxious as most in that category, I used to argue with my father to spend more money. He was a tightwad in my mind. Truth be told, he was very frugal with his money, having lived through the depression of the 1930s and been subjected to its deprivations.

“You can’t take it with you,” I’d remind him over and over.

“Then, I’m not going,” he’d answer each time.

He may have plagiarized that funny quip, but it didn’t matter. That call and response game became our private joke. We got to the point where we’d shout out his predictable reply in unison, cracking up and bonding. Nevertheless, there was a point to our back-and-forth.

What happened as my father aged is that he did loosen up. He began to realize that his life was finite, and that he wanted to find more joy in the years he had left. Although he never became extravagant in the money spending department, he wasn’t as rigid as in his earlier years.

Those in younger generations to whom I am close: children, grandchildren, etc. have similar conversations with and about me. The subject might not concern money, but it deals with matters that are generational disconnects.

The reality is that you may think you own real estate, automobiles, jewelry, and the like. Nope, you are simply temporary custodians. You are just travelers, passing through.

Travel lightly. Remember to be kind to those who come after you so they will have loving, caring conversations about you when your journey here is complete.

Image by wal_172619 from Pixabay

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BOOKS BY: LEE GALE GRUEN

Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement Years: Find Joy, Excitement, and Purpose After You Retire (self-help): Not a one-size-fits-all approach, this self-help book for retirees, those soon to retire, baby boomers, and seniors offers an individualized, detailed guide to assist readers in discovering activities and pursuits in this new stage of their lives called retirement, based on their own likes and comfort level. I learned the secret the hard way transitioning from retired probation officer to actress, author, public speaker, and blogger. Audience members at my lectures on senior reinvention requested a book on the subject. This is the result, and it contains the content of those talks and six years of posts from this blog. CLICK here TO PURCHASE FROM AMAZON.COM.

Adventures with Dad: A Father and Daughter’s Journey Through a Senior Acting Class (memoir): After retiring at age 60 from my 37-year career as a probation officer, I mistakenly enrolled in an acting class for seniors.  A few weeks later, my mother died, and I invited my grieving, 85-year-old father to come to class with me.  This is the true story of our magical journey attending that class together for three years, bonding more than ever.  I wrote the comedy scenes we performed onstage twice a year in the acting class showcases, and all six scenes are included in the book.  I eventually transitioned into the world of professional acting.  As my fledgling, second career started going uphill, my dad’s health started going downhill.  I would recount to him each of my new experiences while I sat beside his bed at the nursing home where he resided in his final years. CLICK here TO PURCHASE FROM AMAZON.COM.

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