Retirement Talk
WHAT to do with the rest of your life? |
|
|
Episode 13 What do you do?
This is Retirement Talk with Del Lowery.
I hear that question so often: “What do you do?” I never know how to respond. Easy to answer that question
when one is working at a job: I teach, I’m a lawyer, I drive a truck, I farm,
etc. But when one retires, then it’s not so easy.
You can’t just say: “I’m retired”. That doesn’t really
answer the question as to what you really do. It is just too - nebulous. It
says that you have reached a stage of life where you do not hold a job, but it
leaves unanswered “What do you do?”
If you answer honestly to this question, it is impossible to
give a short answer. I thought in this
podcast I would like to illustrate the difficulty.
I know some people who say they don’t know what they would
do if they were retired. Well, my experience tells me that you will, or can be,
very busy. Busy, but busy doing exactly what you want to. The week is pretty
normal in most ways.
Seven mornings of the week start with Tai Chi and a short
walk. Not a lot of time, but important to the rest of the day. Following the
Tai Chi and walk on the five weekdays comes two hours of classical guitar and
then one to one and half hours of exercise. Those are my mornings during the
week. Brenda’s, my wife, consists of an hour and a half of painting in her
studio and then joining me for exercise in one form or another. Three of the
mornings it is biking. One of the mornings we walk into terrific wind out to
and along the shores of
Bellingham
Bay
. This is for exercise
and excitement. Whenever the wind blows really, really strong, we like to walk
by the water and feel the excitement of waves crashing into the shore, water
spraying high and wide; tasting the salt on our lips; and watching shore birds
battle the wind and read the drafts. It is exercise for the heart in more ways
than one. Two mornings of the week I lift weights. Brenda lifts one day. I row
two days on Concepts 1 rowing machine; Brenda one.
A short rest always follows lunch. I like to think of it as
a nap, but in most cases it is just twenty minutes of listening to talk radio
and being lazy; letting the body catch a breath and the mind sort of wander.
This is very valuable time. I’m sure all who take afternoon naps know exactly
what I am talking about.
Every afternoon I spend at least two hours working on
creating these podcasts. Sometimes another hour or two follows in the evenings.
I like to think of this as my community project for the year: the community in
this case being people who are retired or on the verge. This past week I spent
about twenty hours recording and trying to figure out related technological
stuff.
But the
high point
of every afternoon has to be our time in local coffee shops. We try to spend at
least one hour sitting in one and enjoying a great cup of coffee. Talking to
friends, Brenda doing her crossword, me reading a magazine, or – as I am doing
right now – writing a podcast episode. There is something about a coffee shop
that is so civil. People sipping a carefully crafted drink, open to discussion,
lost in reading, writing on a laptop. We love the coffee shop part of our day.
We rarely miss it.
And what of the evenings? This was Halloween week. We were
in
Vancouver
and went to some friends' house. I went trick-or-treating with their kids and
mother. It was great to walk around on a crisp, clear fall night with all that
young excitement. And the salmon dinner and conversation that followed didn’t
hurt either.
A play at a local repertoire company took up another
evening. A play, written, incidentally, by one of our baristas at our local
coffee shop. What fun! It was made special when five other baristas whom we
know by name walked in and sat in the row right in front of us - a great
evening.
The following night was dinner at some friends' house where
we indulged in spicy Moroccan lamb stew served over couscous accompanied by
cucumber and yogurt salad, topped by a chocolate pudding to die for. I almost
forgot to mention the two bottles of wine. We all share the delight that comes
from eating new dishes, a crackling fire, and thoughtful conversation. Yes,
conversation. It is an art and these two friends are pros. Hours speed by while
we settle life’s essential questions.
The following day found us with another dinner at our house
with other friends. Brenda is a gourmet chef and we lingered around a table of
some sort of pasta dish accented with sausage and chicken in some sort of
sauce. Our friends' 11 year old daughter, Sarah, made a lemon meringue pie for
the occasion and we loved the tart flavor and gallant success.
The week drew to an end on Sunday, which saw us spending the
morning with the newspaper, phone conversation with our children, a bike ride,
and then our drive into the city to start a new week. Here we squeezed in some
pizza and beer at our favorite brew pub and a movie on DVD.
Retired life is busy. Busy in a good way. I suppose I have
left out a some things like a few hours in the garden, a visit to the doctor
and cleaning the house and doing the laundry.
My point in all of this is to point out how difficult it is
to tell someone what we are doing in retirement. I suppose our life would seem
boring to some, but it is just exactly what we want to do at the time.
Retirement can be a time for self direction and self affirmation. Nietzsche
would love it.
This is Del Lowery with Retirement Talk. You can find our
website at
www.retirementtalk.org
A resource from a listener: Best Free Online Degrees for Seniors guide is designed to assist seniors who aspire to enhance their intellect or consider starting a new career path. It features an overview of the top online degrees for seniors, emphasizing their numerous advantages, and a broad range of subjects to choose from.
A friend's website: Terra Firma Designs: Fine Furniture, Stained Glass and woodworking workshops.
Copyright 2010 RetirementTalk.org
|
|
