My Friends: An Introduction

“I am not aware of any other factor in medicine that has a greater impact on our survival than the healing power of love and intimacy. Not diet, not smoking, not exercise, not stress, not genetics, not drugs, not surgery.”

So says Dr. Dean Ornish, a Clinical Fellow at Harvard and author of “Love and Survival.” I discovered Ornish when so many retirement books referenced his studies to show how important relationships are to successful aging.

I didn’t need to read the book to know that. When I think of the joys experienced in my first year of retirement, they all revolve around friends. Leisure gets boring without them. And this amazing house is just a house without the people who hang out here.

So in the next few blogs I’m going to talk about my friends.