“It’s time to retire” I announced to my friend today. Although I retired from my career almost 20 years ago, I’ve stayed stressed, busy and fulfilled with unpaid volunteer responsibilities. These responsibilities provide the ongoing and rewarding challenges of learning, problem-solving, leadership and social engagement. I find purpose, satisfaction and fulfillment in these tasks.

So what if my smartwatch reminds me frequently that my body is stressing? That my sleep is shortened by creative problem-solving? That time for reflection, reading, writing and sitting in the sun is too often missing?  I now make more careless errors than I used to. Copying even a phone number takes longer than it should. Sentences appear in my writing with missing words or concepts. Comprehension of complex instructions is increasingly difficult. Speaking before a group necessitates standing—problematic with balance and joint problems.  My fulfilling work is becoming increasingly stressful and difficult.

And yet, life without purpose has been called meaningless, directionless, or like a journey without a destination. The literature of aging reiterates that even the most elderly require purposeful engagement with life. How do I maintain fulfilling, satisfying purpose in the face of steadily declining cognitive and physical abilities?

Living in a senior center means having daily conversations with residents much older than me. I have had incredible discussions with amazing 95+-year olds. Even short conversations quickly discern the meaning they have found despite the sobering disabilities of their age. One very elderly resident is nearly blind and almost deaf. She continues to knit infant sweaters for charity with a magnifying glass several inches thick. Another wheel-chair bound resident takes great pride in interactions with residents no longer articulate. Her joy at coaxing a few words from them thrills here. A third resident with multiple disabilities stubbornly continues to write for a local newsletter. Her computer often makes inexplicable changes—drop-down menus and words disappear with random abandon. She keeps a list of allies—-including a relative who accesses her computer from afar— to help her solve those problems.

A characteristic of all these residents is “acceptance”. Each of them has figured out how best to adapt given their unique situation. By accepting their limitations, and finding adaptations to them, they find fulfilling projects. Purpose comes with a completed infant sweater. Joy is the reward of a word from an otherwise silent resident or the publication of an article. None of these very elderly women will ever really retire. Instead, they have and will continue to accept, adapt, and find new purpose. Forget about retirement; it just won’t happen. It will just be different.