At the End of the Block

  Pear trees blooming in March? A rarity in Northern Indiana but true this year as seen from this photo in front of my condo. Sometimes I feel cloistered in my condo retirement community. I like being the last house on the cul-de-sac, abutting the backyards of two "regular" houses. It makes me feel still attached to the outside world eight months after our move.

A reason to move to this retirement community was to be part of a discrete community. I value the sense of belonging, but at the same time I feel slightly boxed in, my world narrowing. Out my front door and to the west I walk a neighborhood of diversity. Turning to the east instead, I pass beige condo after beige condo of retirees. We have different backgrounds and experiences, yet we are quite homogenous and mostly products of a certain era. We are turned inward, our circled wagons creating security to face together the challenges of aging and dying. I need to go beyond the perimeter more to view a more expansive world and its perspectives, to leave behind what could become a fortress mentality. From the end of the block, I can look out my window and be reminded to claim the best of both worlds.