Connections With People, Purpose and Wellness
|
Do you live alone? Do you have a community of support to lean on when the chips are down? Do you have an "ICE" or "in case of emergency" person? More than 1 in 4 Americans live alone now and many of us are baby boomers. My vision is to help individuals living alone create meaningful connections to age well and independently.
Here's my story... Nearing my mid-life crisis, buying a sports car was just too easy. So, I packed my bags and my two cats and moved from Washington, DC to Little Canada, Minnesota. Two more different places, I can't imagine! Though Little Canada sounds exotic, it was just another Twin Cities suburb, complete with a water tower, an A&W Drive-In and a few trailer parks. Pictured to the right is one of the reasons I moved to Minnesota. After my move, I spent four years living on one of its 10,000 lakes. Our lakes are frozen six months of the year which makes for amazing winter sunrises. However, because I didn't have a social network, I felt like Thoreau on Walden Pond! Though I was born in Minnesota, I didn't have a home team advantage in building a social life here. Building social connections from the ground up as a single person took a lot of time and patience. It could be my age, 6 months of winter's hibernation, or that Minnesotans are very fortunate to have vast circles of friends dating back to pre-school. I think it's a three-way tie. So I started reading about social connections and attended a talk by Dr. Jacqueline Olds, author of a book called The Lonely American. Dr. Olds proposes that due to television and cultural changes, social isolation is on the rise in our society, with a dire potential impact on our physical and mental health. I committed to Minnesota through buying a home in fall 2010. I've intentionally worked to build community with my neighbors. One neighborly connection enabled me to help someone living alone, who had fallen in her home, get safely to the hospital. That's when it really hit me! We all need Plan B Connections! We all need someone watching out for us - someone who has us on their radar. We also need a life purpose for getting up every morning and we need to maintain physical, mental, and emotional wellness. We Baby Boomers need to plan ahead to support those keys to a fulfilling life. That's my mission - to help individuals living alone find meaningful connections and build up their wellness. If this website helps you connect to people, purpose and wellness, it has served its purpose. May your life be filled with meaningful connections! Lisa Cook Want to be "in the know?" "Like" our Plan B Connections Page on Facebook! Updated July 2016 |
 A winter sunrise in Little Canada, Minnesota  Returning to my birthplace for life's second half... 
My kind neighbors Pat and Jim planted this Friendship Garden next to my home
|