Another year older and what have I done?

In less than an hour it will be 2009.

It barely seems like a blink ago that we were in our shop doing the annual inventory and at intervals, agonizing over what to do about retirement. It wasn’t a case of not wanting to retire. No. I could barely contain the gleeful thoughts of freedom that I anticipated with the finish of my working life. The concern was the affect that following our hearts might have on other people, our family, our friends and our staff.

Robert Louis Stevenson said: “We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best that we find in our travels is an honest friend”.

I have been lucky. I have a few honest friends who finally helped me to recognize that, no matter what we chose to do, in the end the world would continue to spin and no one would be any the worse for our choosing that road less travelled.

It isn’t that I have ever felt indispensible but most of my working years were spent in a position of responsibility in terms of other’s financial futures. Because of this I took that task so seriously that it became an albatross that threatened to sour the pleasure and contentment that I have always enjoyed during the many years of working with people, most of whom I had come to regard as friends.

It was not an easy decision. In fact it was much harder than I could ever have expected. Although I had anticipated some emotional upheaval when it came time to make the announcement, I was absolutely stymied at the reactions of a few. But that’s where true friends make everything bearable. Someone once said that a good friend is a connection to life – a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world.

Tonight, as I sit here waiting for the clock to send us chasing after another year, I have been thinking about my absolute good fortune. I have been blessed by family and friends who have cared enough to let me go and who have promised to keep a light in the window for my return. I am grateful for your wisdom and excellent counsel, for your patience and kindness, for your unending sense of humor which is probably the most important ingredient in the foundation of our friendship, and most of all for your love; I hope to always earn it.