Age is opportunity no less than youth itself, though in another dress.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Whether you are four or one-hundred-and-four, it is never too late to create! The word “retirement” has such a defeatist connotation. Imagine being expected to withdraw from life because you are now no longer doing the work that you once did! Nobody should ever remove themselves from the gift of life because they have been placed in an outdated category called retirement. It should, instead, be referred to as REWIREMENT because with it, comes so many possibilities for further growth. A REWIREE is in a state of still becoming; a retiree, can suggest a relegation to the category of redundancy, disuse – of being a has-been. Words have incentivizing power and regarding oneself as a habitual rewiree is imperative at any age.

I therefore advocate replacing the word “retirement” with REWIREMENT, a concept replete with energy, excitement, growth, creativity, exuberance –  and many new possibilities. In fact, at all ages and stages of our lives, we need to consistently rewire ourselves with other possibilities so that we never become stagnant in our creative thinking and are prepared for the inevitable changes in our own lives. We are more than our job description – much more – and there are undiscovered resources within ourselves to be explored. It is important to be adjustable; life is not static – we all will experience changing circumstances.

Our creative potential is not finite, but instead, is something we can enjoy in varying ways throughout our lives. The act of continuing to create is a bridge that extends from where we are now, to the child we once were. We should cultivate and continue to develop and extend our creative repertoire. There is always something new to learn and experience.

In my book, HAVE YOU EVER HAD A HUNCH? The Importance of Creative Thinking, among the many obstacles to reaching one’s creative potential that I identify and examine, is that of  seeing oneself as having only one designation in life –  being a specialist in one field exclusively. Not only do we have the capacity to be much more than a one-profession-designation, but we should also resist imposing categorical boundaries on the things we do. I prefer not to impose what is often, artificial limits on what I do: Both my non-fiction and fiction books connect because, after all, I am the writer and these books reflect my philosophy about life. I choose to straddle categories according to my creative instincts. HAVE YOU EVER HAD A HUNCH?, for example, is the non-fiction connection to my fantasy novel, THE WORLD OF GLIMPSE because both are largely about creativity and productivity.

I have had tremendous joy exploring creativity through story and characters (all reflections of ourselves) and, also, through my art in the book and DVD,  THE WORLD OF GLIMPSE. Justgimious – “Just give me the facts…and no fiddle-faddle” – one of my characters in the book, has always seen himself as an inveterate realist who is only interested in FACTS. He says of himself that he is a “Factulator” not a “fabricator” because that is what he has always done. How could he possibly change the designation he has given himself and has lived by all these years?

On his 104th birthday, a muse in the form of Pencilpal Fred, suddenly gives him the gift of Imaginative Exploration. He invites Justgimious to “Penetrate a Glimpse” because you never know what you might see.”  I penetrated my glimpses all the time via my writing and my art as you will see in the following short video excerpt from THE WORLD OF GLIMPSE DVD. Both my book and DVD are examples of how I capture these fleeting visions – these glimpses of boundless possibilities that we all have – but we must remain open to them.

Enjoy the video: