Dear LPG,

I was inspired to write this message for my fellow readers by a neighbour of thirty years who has become a very good friend of mine.  He retired some five years ago from a job that he loved and made no secret of the fact that he has found adjusting to his new situation really difficult. 

I and my neighbours are lucky in as much as there are four of us who live locally and, , although over the years we now all find ourselves living alone, we have bonded as we have passed from our working lives to the life of leisure that we now enjoy. 

But the friend that I was originally talking about has worried the rest of our little gang -somewhat.  Though he has not done anything drastically uncharacteristic and he shows no real signs of it, the other three have picked up on the odd concern that there is a slight air of depression setting in with his look and the little things that he says from time to time. 

We decided that he needed a new hobby and set out to get him thinking along those lines by all challenging each other to find something new to do with our lives, and I think that we were successful.

So I have one neighbour who now has really got involved with selling some of those many things that clutter older people’s houses on line (we have to say that it is going quite slowly as he learns from his son and we learn from him), another volunteered at a local charity shop (which gets us all visiting a little more often to donate as well as browse), while the third, has gone back to something she took a great interest in over 20 years ago, health and beauty therapy (she practices on us mainly which is very therapeutic ) and I have undertaken to indulge my love of writing by sending LPG a few more articles to post (and getting them writing too).

So, in our efforts to help him, we have all diversified a little and, because of our friendship, we are sharing our new indulgencies with each other while the rest of us can all agree that the neighbour in question has changed for the better.

So please, if you are feeling a little down find a new hobby, and expect a few more little gems from us on the LPG pages.

MM, Catford

LPG thanks MM for reminding us of the importance of friendship and also what can be gained by starting something new.  Our generation of elders are so lucky because there really is so much more choice for us and the only limitation we have is our imaginations (and perhaps what our bodies are able to do).  

LPG has found some suggestions for anyone looking for inspiration.

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