My life has always been ruled by calendars and clocks. As a child, seasons flowed through the school year. As an adult, time was counted in work weeks, dead-lines, pregnancies, baby stages and then school years once more. Weekends were treasured. Summers yearned for. Holidays began with the lightness of freedom, but a heaviness inevitably descended as they drew to a close.
What would it be like to live off the time grid? What would I do with all the glorious hours and days when retirement finally came?
Hubby and I are quickly learning what others have told us over and over. Life does not slow down when you are retired. It changes. We decided that it was time to flow with the change and have a fresh start. We’re moving. The chaotic stress of purging and packing is forgotten in the excitement of new beginnings.
Our new home is on the water, providing lots of opportunities for playing and partying with our kiddies and grand-kiddies. It is also a wonderful spot for slowing down and pondering; a writer’s dream!
I’m not sure where my writing will lead me, but write I will. I’ve been thinking a lot about what road to take. Do I pick up where I left off? Do I try something different? Is it time to write the book I’ve always dreamed of writing? If so, what would I write about?
With all of the unexpected events that have come my way these past months, I’m ready to sit back and give myself over to the God of surprises.
catholic dialogue 
Congratulations on your new adventure. I have been retired for quite some time and find, for me, the best things are to read, think leisurely about things, and to communicate with people who can broaden my horizons. My choices in books are extremely diverse. Libraries and books stores are like buffets to be sampled. You never know what will open new paths of thought and perhaps action. Just starting a conversation with a stranger can be very rewarding. If you can live with it, put away your alarm clock and let nature set your pace as much as you can. You will find YOUR rhythm.
Enjoy!
I share your love for books, Jerry. Even after seriously purging my collection, I still have about a dozen and half boxes to move. Finding our own rhythm is brilliant advice. Thank you!
You will enjoy your retirement for sure.Been retired for 10 yrs and I am as busy as before ,I volunteer on a number of church and community boards and organizations.I love it.There is so much pleasure and satisfaction in giving.
Go for it and enjoy!
I plan to, Jean. Thank you! 🙂
God speed. Your final sentence might be your best advice to yourself: give yourself over to the God of surprises. I should have began with: God slow down.
Ah, the slowing down is maybe my biggest desire…..and biggest challenge. Cheers, Dennis!
Going with the flow and accepting change was the really big step for me. My retirement was not anticipated and at first I experienced it as the collapse of the scaffolding of meaning in the particular ways my individual life was held together – “Friday”. Then there was “Saturday” where I began to realize that new life would come somehow and be contiguous with my previous life but not something latent or lying dormant in what had died. “Saturday” was the space were I allowed what what had died to be buried. It became the soil where new life germinated. However, it was difficult for me not having my old story, I wanted to run too quickly to start a new story (Sunday). New life came at me from the future as I held on and waited. No one initiates their own resurrection it comes from the Spirit and is received as gift. So for me life after retirement did not continue on the same plane. I received the gift of new life bigger than the one I left behind. Thank God it is “Sunday”.