Just what exact­ly is the ‘good life’?

The ‘good life’ real­ly comes from a point of view not from hav­ing lots of mate­r­i­al objects.

If you val­ue most high­ly the times you spend with your fam­i­ly and friends, I think that’s the ‘good life’.

Some peo­ple wait all their lives, until retire­ment, for what they think of as the ‘good life’.

For us wait­ing has nev­er been an option. I think I learned that from my father. He lived life to the fullest right up until he died. But his plea­sures came from such lit­tle things as sail­ing my lit­tle (8 foot!) sail­ing dinghy up and down the canal I lived on some years ago. 

For him, hav­ing a small boat at his dis­pos­al (even if it leaked whilst on the water!) made life worth­while. That’s why I hold onto my lit­tle dinghy even though it may nev­er go back into the water again.

I could com­fort­ably row it down Salt Creek and into the New Riv­er if I ever get it in the water again. That dream is embed­ded in my mind.

As a teenag­er and in my ear­ly work­ing years I always felt that the days I spent on a boat, anyone’s boat, were my ‘real’ life and the rest were just what you had to do to get to the ‘real’.

Many of my Eng­lish rel­a­tives and friends feel that way. I sup­pose for those of us who don’t go to church it’s our spir­i­tu­al con­nec­tion with the world. It cer­tain­ly has mag­i­cal pow­ers over us.

Those who are hob­by-less, pas­sion-less and are work­ing until they retire to the ‘good life’ in their 60’s, some­times lat­er, are miss­ing the boat completely.

I have had at least two reminders in my life not to waste a day. For­tu­nate­ly, although my father’s sud­den death at 68 was a shock to us all, he had already passed along his way to live life. So that when my hus­band was equal­ly sud­den­ly rushed into hos­pi­tal at only 56 we were all ready (as far as one can be ready for such a sit­u­a­tion) for the fray.

Of course we are now tru­ly ‘frayed’ at the edges and through the mid­dle too!! But life has gone on and there have been spe­cial times for us all, col­lec­tive­ly and indi­vid­u­al­ly. Some­times the spe­cial times can’t com­pen­sate for the dra­ma of it all, but at least there are mem­o­ries to hold onto and times that we’ve smiled and laughed.

So to those of you who are just wait­ing for retire­ment and not enjoy­ing the ride – DON’T WAIT ANY LONGER – life may take over and reduce your choic­es quite suddenly.

The time to live the ‘good life’ is actu­al­ly NOW! Go for it!