It’s a serious business.
Imagine, if you will, a quiet kitchen table. The coffee is steaming, the house is still, and that clock on the wall… well, it’s ticking just a little louder than it used to. You’ve made it! The finish line has been crossed.
But for many, the transition isn’t just a change of clothes; it’s a full-scale negotiation with the soul. You see, the great danger for the newly retired is trading the “heavy harness” of a career for the “heavy silence” of an empty calendar. We think we want freedom, but freedom without a fence… well, that’s just being lost in the woods. Too many good men and women exchange the restrictions of a boss for the restrictions of a recliner. And as the saying goes: “Retiring can be practicing being dead… and that doesn’t take any practice.”
The Retirement brochures promised sunny skies, but for some, a “disenchantment” sets in. The honeymoon of sleeping in wears thin. You look in the mirror and wonder: if I’m not the manager, the teacher, or the craftsman anymore… then who is this person looking back at me? It’s a restlessness, a nagging sense of irrelevance—that sends many a soul wandering back to the classifieds.
Why go back? Sometimes it’s because the “outgo” has started to exceed the “income”, after all, the grocery store doesn’t care that you’ve turned in your keys. But more often, it’s for the social “grease” that keeps the gears turning. Work provides a community and a reason to shave, a reason to dress, and a reason to go. It keeps the mind sharp and the spirit vital.
You see, a successful retirement isn’t about stopping; it’s about reorienting. It’s realizing that self-government requires a little self-discipline.
You have options.
Oh, you have such wonderful options! You can volunteer at the
local church or the school lunchroom. You can take a hobby—those birdhouses or those paintings and turn a passion into a business. You can go back to school to learn the things you never had time for or offer your seasoned skills to the county seat. Teach!
One cannot fish, play golf, travel every waking moment of every day forever. But you can continue the pleasure of the hunt, the hunt for purpose.
You find a reason to get out of bed, a way to mingle with people, and a way to be needed.
You might just find YOU and a second breath of happiness.
