On Change

As I write you, it is September. Tomorrow we welcome fall to Colorado. I felt the change of season last weekend when we began to have rain and coolness at dusk and dawn. For me, fall is a reminder of barren trees, eventual snow and ice, and an enduring chill that starts tomorrow and ends somewhere in March of next year. As I age, I have come to understand why senior citizens (like me) become snowbirds, relocate to Florida or Arizona, and wear winter clothing nine months out of the year.  

These cold feelings, over the last few years, have caused me to fantasize about spending fall and winter in warmer climate zones. I just feel so much more comfortable in my shorts and flip flops. The desire to be warm and comforted by the sun has stirred a change in me, a change in my future.

I estimate that I have about 20 or so years remaining on this earth. I have worked hard, had input on raising two fine (now adult) children, experienced much as a younger man, and now I plan to throw myself into the last years of my life. I want to explore and learn new things, to smile, relax, and continue to learn to love unconditionally. But I will throw myself not into building empires and storing dollars in the bank but into investing in my own time and pleasures.

We want to go to new places, meet more people, dance more, teach more, and build communities of like-minded, like-aged individuals that desire to experience life to its fullest. Grace and I are almost finished rehabbing “Gordito” (named that because he was bigger than we thought we wanted, plus he eats lots of fuel), our 1997 Thor RV (and yes, we know an RV is a baby boomer cliché – LOL).

We’re going to visit Mr. Sunshine anywhere south of Colorado. We don’t know what life will be like living in a very tiny home on wheels for days and weeks at a time. Hopefully, this adventure will help us keep in touch with what's inside us, as well as expand our awareness of what's outside of us.

We plan to live with fewer material possessions, dance some, experience live music, visit new towns, and meet new people and diverse cultures in the U.S. We’ll be in and out of the state, and I will still be teaching blues dance in northern Colorado, because you, our local students, are a part of our family.

My lively and somewhat eccentric mother (now deceased) loved to dance and play tennis – all of her life. At 92 years of age, she said the secret to long life was to “keep moving; stay supple.”

For those of you also entering the last quarter of your life, what is your plan for your remaining years and what must you overcome to get there?

“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.”  
~Helen Keller

Stay warm,
Kevin