Many people take community to mean the block your house is on, or maybe your town or some group of people you may know or are just affiliated with. With this view point you could be in the middle of your “community” and still be alone, or feeling lonely, or struggling with isolation.
Community is more than a physical location with other people living there. It is a relationship that you have with those around you. Maybe your community is your family, cousins and uncles and aunts.
Maybe it is a larger group of unrelated people like your church, or a social group like a Rotary Club, Lions club, B.P.O.E., or Elks. You want it to a group like the TV sitcom group on Cheers. It’s a place where everybody knows your name and welcomes you with open arms.
Does this mean you always get along? Hell no, but because you don’t agree on everything doesn’t mean you are still not friends. I have many communities in my life, and I just got back from visiting one this past weekend.
It was my 50th class reunion at a little town called Potsdam in Northern NY. It was a community I joined 54 years ago and developed a relationship with all of them that we still maintain.
We exchange Christmas letters; we share pictures, and we share tragedies and when one of us dies we all mourn. My fiancée says when we get together every several years and start to talk to each other it is like we had only been apart for a day.
I have other communities that also care about me. My church, or my Toastmasters club, or the local college alumni who I get together with several times a year. Last of all my family, my children, brother and sisters, my fiancé and her children.
Add to that cousins, nieces, and nephews. Many communities that I draw upon comfort me when I have sorrows and who also help me celebrate victories. Maybe it is a small victory like living to the next birthday, or a large victory like finishing teaching another semester. All of them are celebrations.
Studies have shown that those who have community to support them in tough times and celebrate high points live longer than those who don’t. Do you have a community that you belong to?
Have been neglecting that community, not going to reunions with the excuse I wouldn’t know any of them now. Many people don’t make the effort to associate with a church with the excuse they are a bunch of old fussy buddies.
Have you estranged yourself from family because they don’t think like you do? I would encourage you to reconnect, enlarge your community and look for ways to participate in these communities.
How do you plan to enjoy the last third of your life? Is it with celebrating life with others around you or will you hide from relationships and life? Last, remember life is for living and enjoying, you can’t save it up for some other time because you don’t know what the future will bring.
If you think about these changes, you will find that you will really enjoy retirement. I am here to help coach you on living life with gusto and to help you to keep moving forward with your plans on enjoying life.
Want more ideas, sign up for our classes, join in the discussion and become part of our community about life after working at www.patterson2y2r.com
Your feedback is very important to us so if you would like to contact us with a question or comment.
The mailbox associated with this email address is patterson.2y2r@gmail.com .
If you no longer wish to receive A Life Well Lived, please email us at patterson.2y2r@gmail.com .
#vision #mission #visionmissionplan #companyplanning#corporateplanning
Comments