Tag Archives: friends

Alone for a Week in Retirement

Posted on by
Country living for a retired man

Country living for a retired man

Barbara is on vacation. She went exploring along the northern California coast with two friends she has known for decades. She has been having a wonderful time, including taking a close photo of a bear near a cabin. When we talked on the phone, she was as excited about the bear as you might imagine a twelve-year-old girl scout.

I have been alone with Cicero and the rain. Since Barbara has been away, it has rained everyday. The woods, bushes and grass are growing fast enough to watch.

Continue reading →

New York City Before Sandy

Posted on by

My wife, Barbara, and I traveled to New York City on October 22, and we left a few days before Sandy hit. We were on a “retirement vacation,” which is a vacation from retirement, and we visited a friend who lives in New York.

Some images of New Yorkers follow. The photos show people doing ordinary things, and they offer a contrast to the images now on television. Ordinary things offer a goal toward which New Yorkers now work.

An age-old group

Continue reading →

We Can Be Happy with Ordinary Friends

Posted on by

People often idealize friendship, talking about true friends and soul mates with whom deep and lasting relations abide and in whom true sympathy resides. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that way in 1841 in an essay on “Friendship.” He describes friendship as a high-minded, God-given relationship between persons.

Writing in January on our blog, Later Living, I took a more practical tack, speaking of friendship as human companionship offering goodwill and affection; writing that friendships make people healthier and help them live longer, and that to make friends retirees need to join activities with other people.

Is Emerson’s a more helpful view—one that leads to a healthier or more fulfilling later life? Continue reading →

Later Living in Investment News

Posted on by

Warren Flick and Later Living Appear in Investment News

Warren was recently interviewed for a short piece in Investment News about empowering individuals to manage their own investments.

Read the full article here. Free registration required, but if you don’t want to register, you can bypass registration by clicking here to Google search for “Warren Flick Investment News” and then clicking on the first result.

A Secret to Living Longer and Happier—Friends

Posted on by

Friends enlarge our lives, as we enlarge theirs. There is nothing like goodwill and affection, extended and received, to boost our spirits and encourage us forward.

Yet later life often seems marked with decreasing friendships even beyond those claimed by death or incapacity—why? Can the losses be prevented? A few practical observations about friendship may help.  Continue reading →

Coming Home: Multigenerational Households are Growing—Part 2

Posted on by

As multigenerational families grow, more people are dealing with the difficult task of incorporating a new member into an existing household. There are important generic differences between needy parents joining families of their children, and young adults returning home. Also, each case will have a unique family history. Still, it seems possible to build a framework that will help families chart successful futures.

Here are three elements of such a framework:

  • Compassion
  • Honesty
  • Outside help

Continue reading →

Country Friends

Posted on by


There’s still a little magic in every motorcycle ride to the country. When I was young, our family took automobile rides on many Sunday afternoons, and I always loved to watch the farms and forests roll by, imagining what it would be like to live where we passed. Sometimes my father stopped and talked with people we saw near the road.

On a recent motorcycle ride I stopped to watch a small herd of Holsteins in a roadside pasture. They were grazing slowly toward me, but once I dismounted and walked toward the fence, they turned and headed away. Their owner came out from the farmhouse across the street to say hello and ask about my interest in cows. He looked about my age, but he was smaller, more wiry.

“Pretty, aren’t they,” he offered.

Continue reading →