It’s been said there are three stages in life: a time when you do what you are told, a time when you do what you think you should do, and a time when you can do what you really want to do. (I’ve been told there is often a fourth stage: when you do what your adult children tell you to do!)
That third stage is often thought of as retiring, but it could better be described as refocusing, having the time to refocus on what is important: traveling to exotic places, spending more time with the grandkids, or reconnecting with past hobbies or starting new ones.
Or volunteer!
National Volunteer Week, which concluded last week, gives us an occasion each year to acknowledge and thank all of you who give your time and energy to strengthen our communities in the Gorge. You are among the approximately 60 million Americans who volunteer, contributing over a billion hours each year to communities nationwide. We should be proud that across all age groups, the highest rates of volunteering are among people aged 65 and older!
As all of you who volunteer already know, volunteering provides an opportunity to make new friends, keeps you mentally sharp, and gets you off the couch and out of the house. And volunteering is good for your health; volunteers experience lower rates of depression, higher life satisfaction, and even increased longevity compared to non-volunteers.
If you ask volunteers how they started, most will say they were asked. But when asked, or when you are looking for a new volunteer opportunity, how do you decide whether it is the right fit?
You can start by asking yourself these three questions.
1.) Does the volunteer opportunity deal with a subject that you strongly care about? It could be politics, the arts, or mentoring young people.
2.) Does the volunteer opportunity utilize your strengths and talents such as bookkeeping, gardening, sales, teaching, or painting?
3.) Does it fit your schedule? Are there regular or flexible hours? Can you still have time to enjoy your hobbies or travel to Thailand?
If you haven’t been asked to volunteer, ask your friends where they volunteer. Volunteering with friends can help make the transition into a new volunteer position more comfortable.
Or create your own opportunity to volunteer. Start a painting class or a line dancing class. Invite friends to play games such as mahjong or dominoes. It was volunteers who started all those activities at the Mid-Columbia Senior Center.
Sometimes we are too modest, but everyone has abilities and interests that a service club, a church, or a community non-profit could use. If you are already volunteering, thank you. And if you want to volunteer, I know there is a place for you. And you will still have time to travel, work in your garden, and visit your grandkids!
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Brain Tease: These are more word challenges that boost verbal fluency and recall. And there are no wrong answers!
List the names of various foods in alphabetical order. Now, list the names of places in alphabetical order, and the most difficult, make an alphabetical list of hobbies. (I’m not sure I can even think of 26 hobbies!)
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The company that sponsored the Friday Night Fights on NBC, which many of us watched with our fathers, was Gillette. I received correct answers from Judy Kiser, Bruce Johnson, Tina Castanares, Donna Mollet, Eva Summers, Doug Nelson, Lana Tepfer, Dave Lutgens, Sam Bilyeu, and Ben Rivers who is this week’s winner of a quilt raffle ticket.
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And last week, while pondering how high I could jump if Flubber was smeared on the bottom of my shoes, I missed Nancy Higgins, Donna Mollet, Patti Munk, and Rebecca Abrams.
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By the early 1970s, this device was one of the hottest toys for both children and adults. For this week’s “Remember When” question, what was the name of this device for jumping off the ground in a standing position with the aid of a spring? Email your answer to mcseniorcenter@gmail.com, leave a message at 541-980-4645, or send it with a picture of James Roumeliotis (USA), who set the record of the most consecutive jumps (115,170) on this device.
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Well, it’s been another week, watching the green hills slowly turning a summer brown. Until we meet again, don’t let the fear of “what-if” keep you from doing what you want to do.
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“It must be around forty [I thought it was sixty!] when you’re ‘over the hill’. I don’t even know what that means and why it is a bad thing. When I go hiking, and I get over the hill, that means I’m past the hard part, and there’s a snack in my future. That’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned.”
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