How to Live Life Before Retirement

Twenty-five years ago, after burgers and beers with an older couple, I was thanked for a pleasant night out instead of another organ recital. At their age dinners with friends always included a detailed description of their in-tune and out-of-tune organs. They said it was a pleasant change to talk about my future instead of their pasts.   

Although my current dinner conversations with peers aren't full-fledged recitals, I'll admit I'm starting to feel like a member of the warm-up band. What was once considering career paths is now reviewing retirement plans. Seeing that I never really had a path and still don't have a plan I usually just wait for the subject to change. ‎While they calculate their years left to work, I contemplate my years left to live.  

Just before Christmas I stopped by an old friend's office to deliver her card and heard that she'd retired a few days earlier. The plaque on the door still had her name so I took a photo and sent a message of congratulations. Later that evening on my way through the piazza to meet a student for coffee and conversation (aka work) I got a voicemail from the recent retiree. 

She said, "I have no more desire to push papers around a desk.... for me that's 'stupid' (my kinder, gentler translation). I have no desire to sit behind a computer or answer the telephone. Really, for me, I want to live my life, provided God gives me good health. Live my life? You might ask how I'm going to live my life. I'll live well just staying home looking out at the fields behind my house and enjoying the sunshine, taking a walk and doing any silly thing there is to do. For example, crocheting, knitting, going out to find a friend that I haven't seen for awhile just to drink coffee and talk. For me this is life and freedom. And then, also to travel a bit. This for me is living. I've had enough work. Enough. Now I'm really happy." 

Her message was an unexpected gift. It seemed like she'd taken a page from my book (a book I call How to Live Life Before Retirement). The excitement she felt about her new life to-be sounded just like the current life of me. I have to remember that my everyday life (albeit simple) is what many dream of for retirement. 

I don't know how to crochet (yet), but I've got the rest of her list down to a T.  Fortunately I don't have to wait for my last day of work (aka coffee and conversation in the piazza) to say, "Now I'm really happy."