Retirement

One of the best things about retirement is that I am rarely in a rush to get somewhere - I can usually take the time to randomly stop and observe or make note of something beautiful about our world - I like that. After a lifetime of having to "be somewhere," it is wonderfully freeing to not have to be "scheduled" all the time anymore.

And very often, there is much beauty around us worth stopping to enjoy. I try to remember and look for it.

For example, these flowers were on a highway median, so I parked the car and got out and wandered around. "CAUTION! - old man in hat beside roadway behaving unpredictably."

So people have been asking me, "how do you like being retired?"  The answer in a few words is: "I like it!"  It creates a freeing and calming feeling. I can slow down and reawaken the childish wonder I seem to have lost somewhere along the road of growing up.  (Either that or my senility is kicking in.)

What did it all mean, a lifetime of work? How do I sum it up?
Retirement stirs up many complicated feelings and thoughts.  Perhaps the most noticeable change is the loss of my "work family" - you know, the people who, day in and day out, I spent more waking hours with than my own blood family.  We did a lot of good things together, my work family and I. Truly, I was fortunate to spend 30-years working in a profession with talented, capable people who did real work, work that was difficult, important, and meaningful, and they knew it and they did it with purpose and commitment. I worked with people of honor, people I could count on and who could count on me.

If I could share only one lesson with my now grown son about my lifetime of work, it would be this: always act with honor and expect it from others - everything else is secondary.

But enough philosophy - I am sure there must somewhere I could wander off to right about now..............