“What are you doing with your time, now that you’ve retired?”  That was the question the Ski School Director asked me during our pre-season ski instructor orientation. My answer to him was not even close to adequate, especially when I realized that many of my friends have been wondering that very thing for themselves.  What I’ve been doing is not so much a “list,” as much as a continuing process of calibration.

Initially, thinking about going from a busy medical practice to “retired,” I'd developed a sense of impending dread. Would I become useless, cranky and senile? Would my health deteriorate? Would I “fail retirement,” and become depressed with nothing to do, and have to go back to work? 

No— I’d prove my continued vitality.