Resources for Following Your Heart
By Emily Kimball

Editor's note: The Aging Adventurer, Emily Kimball speaks nationally on Creative Aging, Taking Risks and Making Dreams Happen. She is a longtime outdoor enthusiast who takes lessons learned from her adventures and applies them to everyday life. Her company, Make It Happen!, is based in Richmond, VA.

Jan Hively offered a fascinating — and inspiring — definition of meaningful work at her session at the National Positive Aging Conference in St. Petersburg, FL, in December:

Paid or unpaid productivity that benefits you and/or your family, and/or your employer, and/or your community.

In Jan's session, we divided into small groups to discuss a “work” experience we’d had recently that matched our passions and skills and expressed our values. Somewhat sheepishly, I chose to describe a recent Florida bike trip riding from Key Largo to Key West and back. It matched my passion for the outdoors with my bike touring skills. I was happily involved with the other 100 riders while swimming, bird watching, and sharing meals. At the end of each day, I felt physically tired but mentally satisfied. The trip gave me a great sense of freedom and renewed my spirit.

Later I asked Jan, feeling a little guilty about my work example, could this really fit under her definition of work? Her enthusiastic affirmation led us to discuss how older people can find meaningful ways to spend their time and follow their hearts.

I believe in mixing fun with mission in retirement. Given that many retirees feel they just don’t have the resources for adventure and travel, I have developed a Resource Guide for Aging Adventurers that helps elders find opportunities for volunteering, learning, travel, and adventure. Living on a fixed income is certainly a challenge, and my guide includes some inexpensive options. The 14-page guide lists 55 well-researched opportunities that encourage seniors to pursue their passion without breaking the bank. It stimulates people to think about the possibilities available in their later years — locally, nationally, and overseas. In addition to including e-mail addresses, web sites, phone numbers, and brief descriptions of each listing, it provides a bibliography of other helpful books.

	For more information or to order a copy of the Resource Guide, visit TheAgingAdventurer.com.

The booklet has something for everyone: those interested in low-cost home stays, home exchanges, travel clubs, working on a cruise ship or in a national park, traveling as a courier, caretaking others’ exotic properties, teaching English in China, volunteering at archeological digs, or trying out a “vocational vacation” to see what it is like to do something totally different. The number of opportunities out there boggles the mind!

If you like to do volunteer work, learn about the American Hiking Society’s Directory of Voluntary Positions on Public Land. As I travel the country, often staying in National Parks, I run into seniors who are working as campground hosts, naturalists, gardeners, trail maintainers, or computer helpers. Many parks offer free RV or tent sites to their volunteers. Grandparents often choose parks near their grandkids, so they can visit on their days off without being a nuisance. If you choose to work for wages at facilities serving parks, you often can live in the dormitory. There you can mix with all the smart foreigners who find this a way to see America “on the cheap”!

I encourage you to allow yourself to dream without boundaries and to follow your heart in pursuing new opportunities. Take the plunge, and make your third stage of life unforgettable!