As we age we become more aware of who we are, and we have more time to enjoy the smaller, ordinary things that fill our days.

These words or something like them fill a myriad of books about living a fulfilling retirement. But on some level this seems to me to be a cop-out of not trying to do something to live out remaining dreams. It is just easier to say we enjoy the simple things now than it is to get off our butts and fully live the life we have left. Is “carpe diem” just an unfulfilled dream when we get older?

Some studies find that we get happier as we get older while others contend that we don’t. It is true that I am happier now than I probably have been in all my previous life, and yes I do enjoy to some degree the simple things. But maybe that has actually been forced upon me more than being a voluntary thing.  I have a wife who is totally content with her computer games, TV, and naps. Nothing else seems to be of much interest to her now days. She would gladly live out her life totally in that mode. She just can’t understand why I want to do more.

I do enjoy the simple things in life but I still have unfulfilled dreams…