The time of your life

What a blessing it is to be alive and busy.

I can remember about seven years ago when I had no reason to do anything except walk my dog, read and eat.

Now those are not bad things to do, but they just weren't enough for me, so when I heard of a volunteer program that connected seniors with situations I decided to check it out. It has been a godsend even though I have moved through various different situations from aviation museum to one day volunteer events to helping out at an elementary school, which seems to be my real forte.

After a while that wasn't enough either and I found out about a group called meetups that connected people by giving them the options of different interest groups where they could meet like minded people. I found my niche there in a group of women who want to get together and go out for coffee, or to eat, or talk about books, even go to a movie together. No strings just friends.

And I found a friend I could share everything with, even my weirdest thoughts or flights of fancy who was willing to spend hours talking with me about things we had in common. And the beauty of this friendship is that it feeds into one of my bucket list dreams of publishing a book or books. There are a lot of ways to fill in a life if you're willing to be a bit creative.

It depends on what speaks to you. Don't be afraid to try new things. If they don't work out you can always stop and move on to something else. For me balance is essential. I need to do things that are fun and useful -- and fun, did I a say fun?