Leisure consists in all those virtuous activities that make a man

grow in his morals, in his intellect, and in his spirit.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-45 BC

 

 

You are close to retirement. Suddenly, the free time you had been waiting for is yours. The whole world opens its doors to you. It is a time of risk: you can lose yourself in days without activity. But a time of opportunity also exists: now you can live your life the way you have always wanted to. The world awaits. Be inspired. Inspire others.

 

You retire from work, not from life. The key to  happiness lies in having a purpose in life, and our purpoe can evolve. While working, we often were busy  with day-to-day routine. Have we confused our labor with our life’s purpose? Have you asked yourself –I mean, really asked yourself– why are you here? 

Retirement is the ideal time for finding or rediscovering your purpose. The time is up for little work objectives that did not allow you to look beyond.

 

Now you can look as far as you want. Now you can aspire to anything you want. Train your body and tend your soul. May your time of leisure be a time of action. Learn about yourself, learn from others, read, enjoy art and nature, sunbathe, breathe clean air, write, enjoy the options of getting involved in community life, sharing, and teaching.

Those who live the longest are those who live actively and constantly renew themselves.

 

 

Living well comes easily for those who live close to the ocean. Those who live by the sea speak of tranquility in their lives and they smile while remembering afternoons spent listening to the waves’ tempo. 

 

In the speedy seagulls that harvest their food, in the trees that hide seeds of new life inside of fruits filled with water, in the scent of flowers that blossom in spring, in the moon that shines bright atop the tides that rise every month. These things reveal me the true nature of the world: that of an enormous organism. Like every organism, it has a purpose. You are a part of it. You have a purpose. The attentive observer can discover nature’s purpose. Indeed, he who observes himself attentively can discover his own purpose within the enormous organism the world is.