There are many illnesses that we as humankind have to endure, but one of the worst is depression, we wake up and we may feel the weight of life on our shoulders, sometimes depression is so black even the sunlight cannot penetrate it.  We work at a job all our lives and as we approach retirement we realize that not only did we not leave our mark on life, but we may have miscalculated how much money retirement is going to cost.  When we look at retirement, we may equate it with a little golf, fishing, traveling to see all the places that we have always envisioned or we may just want to relax and work in our garden or try making toys or small objects for our grandchildren.

A great many people suffer from this terrible disease, but if we work at defeating it we may come to realize that there is life after depression, oh the days may not always have a clear sky, but we have our companion and if we are lucky we have our children and grandchildren.  If we live close to one another we can have a camping trip here, a barbeque there, there are so many ways in which we can enjoy each others company, retirement can be one of the greatest experiences of our short existence here on the earth.

It is the love of others that can mask depression, the laughter of our children, the remembering of all the good times, we have to realize that retirement is not the end of the book, and it's just another chapter that we haven't read yet. The most important part of our existence is understanding ourselves and having a good feeling about who we are and what we have achieved in life. After all, that is all life is.