It was my mother’s birthday and I was about twelve, when my grandmother said, “Haven’t you noticed you mother’s been celebrating her 39th birthday for the last five years?” When I later mentioned to the same grandmother that she was old, her response surprised me. She was walking through the side door when she turned and smiled at her impertinent granddaughter and answered, “But I don’t feel old inside.”
She died at age 93 and I can honestly say she never did grow old. She aged, of course, but she never got “old.” Every day this woman rose at 6 a.m. and had her home gleaming by 11 a.m. I once overheard her telling my mother, “I had such trouble getting down the stairs today, but felt better after scrubbing the kitchen floor.”
As for my mother, let’s just say it was worth your life to offer her a “senior discount.”
My heritage may account for the difficulty I have with the word “retire.” (Nor can I bring myself to join the American Association of Retired Persons, as honorable and helpful as that organization may be. They have enough members anyway.)
According to my handy dandy dictionary, the word “retire” means: 1) withdrawn from business or public life (what? As in holed up in a room somewhere and never more interacting with society?) 2) withdrawn; secluded (well I guess that’s what is meant by “ retire”!)
“Withdrawn” means retiring (seems to come full circle, doesn’t it); shy; emotionally unresponsive. “Withdraw” means 1) to take back or away; remove 2) to recall or retract 3) to remove oneself from active participation.
Based on those definitions when a new acquaintance asks me what I “do” I sure as heck am not going to say that I’m retired! I’ve merely changed my focus. I’m moving on. There’s a world of experiences waiting for me.
Some people work all their lives and never develop an interest or hobby. Life is busy enough working eight or more hours five days a week, caring for home, children and various friends. Then suddenly those eight hours are gone; the kids are grown; there’s only so much the house needs and many friends have moved or sadly passed on. Time hangs heavy and television becomes a lonely wasteland. How to fill those long hours from sunrise to sunset becomes a challenge.
Instead, now is the time to: learn to do woodworking, garden your heart out, take up quilting, photography, music lessons, join a book club, volunteer your services, join Toastmasters and master the art of public speaking even if there is no public to speak to. Embarrass your kids more than ever before! It’s time to research that esoteric subject you never had time for and feed your inner nerd.
You don’t have to excel at any of this. Excelling was for the dog- eat- dog work place. You’re free of that. Now, “good enough” is just fine and “just because “is reason aplenty. There’s a well earned freedom now. Set the alarm early; you’re on YOUR time finally. Fill the day with new work, new people, new causes, and new ways to find and create beauty. Follow your heart, your soul, your whimsy. But for the love of heaven, don’t retire!
No comments:
Post a Comment