TECHNICAL ALERT:   If you like reading the blog why not subscribe?  If you already subscribed to my blog (and I’m delighted if you have and will be saying a bit more about that in a minute) I’m sorry to say you’ll have to resubscribe now that we’ve moved into this new website and soon you’ll receive each new posting in your email inbox once again.  Or, if you’re really technologically advanced and use an RSS reader, just click on the RSS icon to create your feed.  Also, if you’re a subscriber I’ve got a special request for you.  Read on!

On July 4, 2008 I pressed “publish” on this blog for the first time.  These words were in my very first posting:

“As you read my words, think about your own experiences and your own realities. When something I’ve written strikes a chord, please add your comment to the blog with your own words of wisdom. Together, perhaps, we can figure out what ‘for the first time in my life, I can really do whatever I want’ means.”

Then, 3 days later I wrote: “When I was first thinking about writing this book/blog …”

So here I am now, only two weeks away from celebrating my first retirement-a-versary.  I’m still very much “in the process” of what is -  I now realize clearly – an enormously jangling transition.  I’m going to give myself an opportunity over the next few weeks to write about where I’ve come to in meeting some of the challenges that I thought about before retiring and also to try to get more clear on what challenges I still see ahead.  The workshops I’ve developed are based on that; helping women figure out what their own challenges are likely to be and then helping them figure out how to chart a gentle path for themselves - or at least a little less daunting a journey – into the wonderful freedom retirement can bring.

I am finally putting the finishing touches on a proposal to turn the first 18 months (see – there it is again – that Jewish number) into a book.  I’d really like to acknowledge the women (and/or men) who’ve been reading the blog and have from time to time enriched us all with their comments.  What I’d be delighted with is if you’d send me an email (sbforthefirstime@gmail.com) that includes (1) your name (or the name/nickname you’d like to be noted as), (2) where you live (state or province or the equivalent is good enough), (3) how long you’ve been retired (or how long until you might retire, or where you are in another situation that replicates this process – for instance, the turndown in the economy has shut down your business), (4) a paragraph (in the range of 250-500) about why you’ve been a part of this and how it resonates in your own experience, and (5) some ideas about what organization(s) should receive donations if there’s any profit from the book (I wrote long ago that I’d contribute – on behalf of all of us – a part of any profits and I haven’t forgotten that).  Thanks so much.  How exciting is this?

Now, on to what I set out to write about today. Read more…