I once heard a song that claimed life is a highway. I don’t remember when or the artist who sang it, but the idea stuck with me. As an old lady — I say that proudly — I am so happy to be traveling down life’s highway with these extraordinary ladies.

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned since retirement is that friendship is the key to happiness. That’s not to say that everything is always perfect or that we don’t have our ups and downs. It is to say that the ups are higher than I ever expected, and the downs, well… there’s always someone to keep the landing from being too hard.

In other words, retirement and life in general are what we make them.

When We Are On the Loose

Laughing out loud and living out loud are what make aging and retirement precious.

The real key to enjoying the aging process is learning to laugh at oneself and learning not to be offended when others laugh at you—not to be offended by too much of anything. It’s not worth getting one’s knickers in a twist when someone laughs at your little mistakes. It’s much better to think, “Well, I made someone laugh or smile,” and just move on.