WELL...ALL I CAN SAY IS, I HOPE THE OUTCOME OF THIS DECISION WAS A GOOD ONE FOR YOU. IF IT WAS, HOORAY! IF IT WASN'T, I SEE YOU ARE STILL VERY MUCH HERE! LIFE IS NOT EASY AND IS COMPRISED OF UPS AND DOWNS, SO...WE PRESS-ON, STAY PRAYERFUL, AND NEVER GIVE UP WHILE REACHING BY FAITH TO OUR CREATOR WHO WILL NEVER FAIL TO LEAD AND GUIDE US! THANKS FOR SHARING. LOVE, BLESSINGS AND FAITH...HIS+INSPIRATION

Maybe you are doing it right now. You are writing poetry. At my crossroads, I chose writing to be my new path. I still don't know if it will work out for me. But I'm determined.

Very tough decision, follow your heart, slow down , options will present themselves if your looking. Breathe!!!!

I extend my best wishes to you, Amber. I took early retirement after 32 years of teaching and I have not regretted it. Love and blessings,

Regis.

Dear Amber,

It's fitting that you named your poem, "Crossroads of Our Lives" because it's exactly what it is, a HUGE crossroad!

I am a college professor and my wife is a nurse. Our professions are part of who we are in life. I love helping students learn and she loves helping folks to recover physically. We decided never to retire completely from our professions. I am down to 1-2 days a week. She will be scaling back from 40 to 32 hours next year. Then hopefully she will find a nursing position that allows her more freedom working just a few hours here and there.

When I was not working at all I felt empty and lost. Yes, I did all kinds of volunteer work and I still do but that never takes the place of what you trained for your entire adult life.

Too many folks retire all at once and wither away. They have NO sense of purpose and they get depressed easily. Even folks who tell you how happy they are at parties will tell you the truth after the party is over. The truth is for far too many people, retirement sucks!

So keep busy at what you do the best. Live a balanced life. That is you need to be physically, mentally and spiritually sound. If you can do that you'll have the BEST life all around.

Much Success,

John Michael

It's good to hear from you again. And I think I know why you haven't been able to post. In the profession that you're in, with your reputation and skill grown with time, it is very tempting to keep carrying on and find your whole life wrapped up in your work.

The key to a happy retirement is having something to retire to. Men who have worked hard all their lives, particularly those in supervisory positions, sometimes have great difficulty in retirement with nobody to boss anymore. I worried about my father, a truck driver, because he didn't seem to have any hobbies except participating until he was about 45 in softball and watching sporting events, couch potato style. And then, he discovered golf at 60 and had a happy golfing retirement with lots of friends and projects with friends for the rest of his life.

So, since you are a writer, like me, I suggest you find a comfy place to live, perhaps far from Manhattan, and be inspired to do some writing that will keep you occupied through the long winter months and some traveling during the summers to get inspiration for writing. Since you have a special skill, you could go online and do custom work for selected customers on a much lesser scale than you have been. Like Ed wrote, retirement is really a time to do what you like, and not what your employer likes for you to do.

Ron

Good choice. Retirement is a fiction invented by the leisure industry to sell more of their wares. Those who can do, while those who can't get to watch and learn. Stay the course, of course! Well said.

Yup . . . Blind faith has been my strong point. You get to trying to |"figure things out," when you finally make a (wrong decision) the opportunity has already caught that midnight train.