Retirement

Retirement

Standing in the kitchen, peeling potatoes, I had a revelation.  I was thinking about people I know that are or were once retired.  I was wondering about Glenn Dyess, since I haven't heard from him in a while.  He and Lynda bought an RV and, the last I heard, are travelling around the United States, enjoying retirement.  My father retired and live quite awhile afterwards, about 15 years.  Sometimes I think he would still be alive if a nasty infection hadn't gotten the best of him.  There are some people that retire and become professional, on their own time, fisherman.  

We spend most of our lives before retirement in the fast mode looking forward to that day we can retire and get into the slow mode. The problem being some people don't know how to get into the slow mode.  They do okay for the first few months and then they get bored, they start thinking of things to do; they don't really know how to slow down.  They begin thinking about going back to work; the one thing that they became tired of doing almost all their lives.  They finish up the list of things that was on the "to do list" quicker than they really wanted to and they run out of things to do around the house.  Most of them don't have a "bucket list".  These are all the things they were prevented from doing because they didn't have the time because they were at "the job".  Slowing down is something that needs to learned, just like a profession.  Once a profession was acquired, we learned how to be, either, the best there is at that profession or how to get by at that profession; regardless it is the reason we wake up early in the morning to prepare for a day of work. It is the reason we look forward to the weekend, to rest up.  Instead of using the weekend to rest up, people usually play harder than they work during the other five days of the week.  The weekend is actually a practice period that should be used to prepare for retirement; unfortunately, it is not what we are taught to do.  People have had it "drilled into them" that the weekend is not for resting but for doing all the things that they couldn't do during the week.

I was just as guilty as everyone else, mostly through ignorance. I didn't realize that Saturday and Sunday were my practice days.  I began a thought process for retirement long before I actually retired.  I began practicing retirement.  I stayed home and only went places when I was invited or when I needed to go to the store for food.  I didn't completely slow down because there were those times when I needed to do something because I wasn't keen on being bored.

I just woke up from an afternoon nap to continue writing.  This is what I am talking about.  Take a nap in the middle of the day, they are good for you.  Your body knows what is good for you, listen to it.  We spend the majority of our lives torturing our bodies and when we get older we wonder why we feel pain in certain parts of our bodies.  I can't lift some weights at the gym because I played too much softball when I was younger. My knees sometimes don't want to lift the weight of my body when I bend down to pick up something from the floor, too much running when I was younger.  When you get older you will find out these mysteries on your own.

When you retire, stay retired and use it for what it is meant for.  It is the last chance you are going to get. Don't be in such a hurry to get things done once you separate yourself from employment.  You are not going to die any younger than was already planned for you, you might actually add a couple of years by finally giving your mind and body the rest it really needs.  Being retired makes you a member of a special group of people.  It is like telling someone that you were with the First Recon in the military.  You can be proud to be a part of an exclusive group.  When they ask you what you do for a living, hold you head high and look into their eyes and say, "I'm retired"; they will be jealous.