First embrace the aging process. Don’t let friends tell you that the new 70 is the old 50. If you are 70 you are not 50 you are 70. Don’t run from reality. Basketball is not in your future or if it is and you’re playing B-ball with a bunch of bent-over seniors and --- that ain’t basketball.  There are limits to what you now can do, but there are great benefits to aging.  

For example, you now own time which in itself is almost intoxicating and worth growing old. You can say “NO!” You don’t have to worry about networking. You don’t have to make new friends. Your socks can match but they don’t have to. But age is a sliding scale --- you know where you are on that scale and plan accordingly. I was like a goat in the Swiss Alps when I was 55; now at 88 I walk the Swiss valleys and look up at the mountain tops. We still bike but now they are E-bikes. We walk every day but not as far. I hear but not as well as one might wish. I see but my lenses are now thicker. I know where every toilet is within 10 miles. And I frequently make sounds standing up, sitting down, and bending left or right. But I’m not on the couch watching Good Morning America.

Now for health. Just like age is a sliding scale so is health. What do you want to do? What can you physically and mentally do? The condition of my health is the first question that I have to be certain about before Deed and I can commit to our next adventure. 

Deed’s motto in life is one of hope and trickery. Deed says, “Age is a matter of mind, if you don’t mind it doesn’t matter.” And another motto that she hammers me with some frequency is, “You don’t stop playing because you’re becoming old, you’re old because you stop playing.”

We now build into our travel low-keyed days. Now Deed can still go all day like her ass is on fire, but I must have a “time-out”, and what I mean by that is that there still will be wonderful things to do or experience but I need to operate at a slower, less stressful pace. That slower pace has to be built into our itinerary. Please, read that last sentence again 

Consult with your doctor but even more importantly consult with your common sense. You do not want to go to the local hospital in Sicily. Please, don’t make me repeat that last sentence. 

We transitioned out of the classroom 28 years ago and have had ample time to put those years into perspective. They have been the best years of our lives.  

We hope they can be yours. 

The trip you are building may go a long way in shaping your future. 

Take adventures but avoid risks.