I am truly terrible about Christmas cards – I always have been and now with Facebook and email, I tend to fall back onto those instead of even sending out the handful that I used to. However, we have some folks that seem to forgive us for my lack of cards and send news of how they spent their year. In this case, there is another Baby Boomer who has managed to align their situation to where he can now have that “fun career” – for him, it is working part time in a bicycle shop. Naturally, this is serious cycling we’re talking about and not repairing the basic kids’ models. He also participated in some bike rides to include one for the Wounded Warrior program and did other volunteer work. What an uplifting letter it was and how great to see someone else able to pursue a dream.

When I look at the choices we’ve made and I hear news like this, I think of one of the ads for an investment firm where the guy on the ad was talking about a financial planner who was asking if maybe he had a dream of owning a vineyard. “A vineyard?”, the guy was musing, “was he serious? No, I’m not expecting to own a vineyard. I just want someone who will listen to me about real plans.” Yes, I paraphrased a bit, but that was the essence of the ad. Again, we can all have that “Lotto List” of things like owning a vineyard, but more often than not, our real expectations will be aimed instead at something like the ability to work at a job that would not otherwise provide adequate income for all of one’s needs. It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to do that and I’m always happy to discuss this with anyone who has questions about how to make it happen.