Short-Term Memory Loss & What's Important

I was reading a book review in the AARP magazine:  Where Did I Leave My Glasses? by Martha Weinman Lear, and she said after 50, you do lose some short-term memory, but you also gain a sharper ability to screen out what's not that important.  I have been experiencing that.  Things that were so important earlier in life, just don't have the same meaning that they used to have.  It makes life a lot simpler.

I've only been retired five months now, but my life has changed drastically.  Life is made up of sleeping, reading, cooking, gardening, walking the dog - nothing momentous, but extremely satisfying to me.  After working for 35 years, finally, I am a housewife.  My mom used to envy me because she said I got to be out and about as a "career girl."  I told her that she was lucky because she got to be a housewife.  I get to stay home now, and I love it.  I don't know if my life will be like this for the next 35 years (if I even live that long), but for right now, it's enough.  I read about people with so much ambition and all the things they're doing out in the world.  For me, I am content to stay home and try out new recipes - for now...