The Sadness Under the Surface

Hello friends, and welcome to Notes from the Road! Glad you're along for the ride. Each week, you'll get news, advice, tools, and inspiration to design your “years beyond careers,” whether you're traveling around the world or blazing a trail in your own backyard. In this issue:

• I miss my Dad.

• Back to school(?)

• The weekly roundup: worth watching, reading, or listening.

• A canal boat tour of Bruges, Belgium.

• Martha Washington on happiness.

Let’s get started!

Growing up, on fall evenings I would sit with my Dad on the deck of the cabin that we built deep in the woods in the Catskill mountains.

Looking up, we’d marvel at the glorious tapestry of stars unfurled before us. After a moment or two of awestruck silence, he’d say quietly, “Sure makes you feel small, doesn’t it?”

This week, on vacation in the Adirondack mountains, I looked up at that same fall sky and was transported to that deck, and to him. And my eyes welled up.

This is a thing about midlife. We accrue losses. They make us stronger. They make us vulnerable. Life is made richer, we are hopefully kinder, and the price is that we carry a bit of sadness with us, always.

It’s been eleven years now, since he’s been gone.

Goodnight Dad, wherever you are.

🎓 Back to School(?)

I was surprised to hear from a retired friend last week that she’s enrolled in seven classes at a local university. The September back-to-school ritual isn’t just for the kids anymore. More retirees are going back to college. Some are seeking degrees, some are seeking new skills, and some are simply invested in their own lifelong learning.

In fact, there’s a lot of support for lifelong learning programs at universities across the United States. The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) provides grants and endowments to 125 academic institutions to develop programming for mature students, including Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, and a host of state university systems.

Whether you’re in retirement or are many years away from it, it’s a good time to explore your take on learning in later life. Some questions to consider:

• What do you want to learn next?

• What have you always wanted to learn but life has gotten in the way?

• When you retire, what will you need to learn (for example, gardening, to perhaps save a bit of grocery money)? What will you want to learn (for example, how to write poetry)?

• What do you know well but want to know better?

And don’t forget the benefits of learning the second time around: social connection, a sense of purpose, intellectual stimulation, and being part of a larger community, just to name a few. It’s a good way to invest in yourself.

You can invest in yourself by reading this newsletter every week!

The Weekly Roundup

Worth your time to watch, read, and listen.

🎞️ Meet John and Bev, the Retirement Travelers. In their most recent video they talk about the magic they’ve found in retirement by reinventing themselves as full-time travelers and YouTube creators. It’s inspiring.

🍲 To celebrate the first day of autumn, try a seasonally appropriate Blue Zones recipe: Barley Butternut Risotto.

📰 Younger doesn’t always mean better. Here are 13 peaks we reach at 40 or later.

🎞️ Bonus just for fun: These kids today! They’re studying together…apart? Do you need some companionship and structure while working alone? Try searching the “Study With Me” genre on YouTube, like this example. Great scenery, calming music, structure, and virtual companionship. Since we here at 89 Days Away aren’t yet retired, we love having this companion alongside as we write.

🌟💡🌟Anything that you’d like us to share in the Weekly Roundup? Any burning topics you’d like us to write about? Let us know.

Just imagine how much fun it would be to read this every 1-2 weeks!