When you Retire, you get your life Back

 

 

By Dan Warner,  Article written for the September 16, 2006 column "Personally Yours''  in the Real Estate Section E of the News Press. 

 

Dan Warner lives his slower life in Fort Myers.  He invites you to take his column personally in the News-Press each Saturday.

 

My neighbors, being human, are wont to complain about things that bedevil them ¿ mostly the developer of our conclave.   "The fees, we complain, are too high. Service is poor.  Promises are made, then not kept.  Common threads, with zillion specifics to discuss in detail."  On and on it goes in a group or gathering, with seldom a dissenting voice. 

 

Developers of gated communities in Southwest Florida, it seems, make dandy common enemies ¿ just what a clan of retired folk need to maintain our sense of self-worth by proclaiming our self-righteousness.

 

Almost without fail, though, the conversation ends with a huge  "but"     It goes something like this: "I'd leave tomorrow if it weren't for all the wonderful friends I have here.  People here are for one another more than any place I have ever lived."

 

The tone in the voice is one of awe and surprise, as if living among worthy people is not to be expected.  

 

Now, I am not here to attest to the validity, or lack thereof, of the complaints, that not being the purpose of this tome. 

 

But I heartily agree with the sentiments about my neighbors - they are indeed, warm, caring, thoughtful and more than all of that, quick of themselves for the sake of someone else.    It makes no sense.  Think about it.  We have people from New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, the Philippines, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Maine, New Jersey... Well, from all over. 

 

They came here for the sun, the gulf and the golf, the warmth, the lifestyle and the plethora of recreational opportunities.  It makes no sense to assume that only the good people, only the kind, only the generous, only the sympathetic, only the loving, only the thoughtful came from all of those scattered places and settled in our one, 700-home gated community. 

 

They are, in fact, the very same people -- or the same sort of people --we knew up North.

 

Any one of them could have been our friends and neighbors in our home states.

 

Remember those friends from up North?

 

All the while, we yearned for more -- human contact, more good feelings, more opportunity to embrace the best part of our inner selves. 

 

It took retirement, giving us time, and a close-knit community, giving us daily contact, to make that happen. 

 

It is reminiscent of small-town America, a family gathering at Thanksgiving or an old-fashioned ice cream social on a hot summer eve.  Materialism and its demands for multi-person family income robbed us of all of that. 

 

We got it back only at retirement.  It is precious time we need to cherish and use wisely.  And, if only we had the courage, perhaps we should be telling our younger generations to just plain slow down. 

 

For true local and knowledgeable service the Cape Coral, FL and Fort Myers, FL real estate market, contact Kurt and Helen Gearing directly at 888.813.5393.