Part 4
We’ve been home for over a month now without travel. We’re beginning to create routines and adjust our thinking. We don’t have to do certain things on weekends anymore or try to be to bed by a specific time. We have the time to do things that were put off while working. Of course, that’s both a good and a bad thing. Now I don’t have work as an excuse to not do something.
It can take some time to get accustomed to retirement. There are so many years of habit that need to change. Just waking in the morning and not having to rush around to be to work on time is a major adjustment. A good one, for sure, but some of those feelings, memories, and activities are automatic after so long. Even now, several months into retirement, on a Sunday afternoon, the old feelings of having to prepare for work the next day will often reemerge. It’s only for a moment, and now those feelings make me smile with the sense of relief that I don’t have to prepare for work.
I didn’t settle into retirement right away. In fact, that’s still in progress. In the beginning, we hadn’t been home for a long enough stretch to begin new routines. Besides the trip to Florida to celebrate retirement, we visited Maine for my mother’s 93rd birthday and took an unplanned trip to upstate New York for a family funeral. We’ve spent many hours driving since we retired.
There was some anxiety as I approached retirement. Thoughts about having enough money, staying healthy, being able to do the things we want to do, living long enough to enjoy retirement, etc. rattled around in my head. I’m told that’s not unusual but being not unusual didn’t make it feel any better.
Now that we’ve been home awhile, much of that anxiety has passed. Even with the economy doing what it’s doing. I have the time to do my workouts and other things to stay healthy so I can do what I want to do for as long as possible. And, my last day on earth is in other hands. Besides, I figure life is going to happen whether I fret and worry about it or look forward to it with positive expectation. Being positive feels much better.
So, the sun is up, the yardwork awaits, and I have no excuses to put it off.
Ramblings Of An Old Guy 