Travel, Happiness and Simple Living During Retirement
By Marie Sherlock I had the occasion recently to sit for some time at a “gaming machine” at an Indian Casino. A little backstory here: Casinos often allow RVs to park overnight for free – or almost for free, after you gamble just a bit. While I AM NOT (I hope the BOLD CAPS came…
By Marie Sherlock (Note: I wrote this a few year’s back. But I’m fairly confident that the “lessons” one learns from HGTV haven’t changed. While on vacation recently – those motel cable packages always include that channel, it seems – I checked out HGTV and, if anything, it’s only gotten worse. The real lesson here:…
By Marie Sherlock If asked what Mothers’ Day is all about, most of us would say that it’s a day to honor moms. We do that, for the most part, on Mothers’ Day with gifts, flowers, cards and more. But the original idea for Mothers’ Day in America wasn’t about elaborate brunches or jewelry or…
By Marie Sherlock (with help from St. Teresa and/or St. Therese 🙂 I am not an Old Soul. Of all of the qualities I wish I had been born with – thicker (and straighter) hair, smaller feet, a larger, er, bosom, the ability to deliver a speech without medication – I think being an Old…
By Marie Sherlock Most people have heard of “Keep Austin Weird” and “Keep Portland Weird.” They may even know that the original motivation for the slogan (in both cities) was to promote local, small businesses. Apparently, in a McDonald’s/Walmart/Home Depot saturated world, the concept of supporting local Mom & Pop Shops is, in itself, pretty…
By Marie Sherlock In the third (and final) installment of our How to Simplify series (read Part One and Part Two), we’re going to investigate some of those BIG simplifying efforts that can ultimately result in BIG life changes, like retiring early or working part-time, traveling, living abroad – and beyond. The bottom line here…
By Marie Sherlock Are you happy? It’s probably a good thing to ask yourself every once in awhile, especially if you sense that something is missing in your life. And if you live in the U.S., that could well be the case. Last year the U.S. ranked a lowly 18th among the world’s countries for…
By Marie Sherlock In the first part of our How to Simplify series, we asked that you do a bit of soul searching to help you determine what matters most to you and – going deeper – what your values are, what your most cherished beliefs are. While it is very helpful to have this…
By Marie Sherlock Renowned philosopher and environmentalist Henry David Thoreau encouraged the world to “Simplify, Simplify!” Thoreau carried his belief in simplifying to what most of us would consider an extreme in today’s world: he chose to live, alone, in a cabin in the woods, off the grid (not that there was much of a…