I am realizing that, after a busyness-filled marriage, child-rearing, and career-occupied life, I now live in retirement, not immobility or non-thinking or non-interest or non-health, but with a lively, active, healthy, interesting lifestyle, during which I have time and energy to pursue varied interests and endeavors with some semblance of almost complete leisure. I can spend a whole day in my PJs reading the myriad of tomes that festoon my tabletops and bookshelves if I choose. I can dedicate a whole day, or days, to writing short stories about the things that have captured my interest throughout my life: ancestry, siblings, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, career, pets, experiences, adventures, education, . . .
I can get up as early as I desire knowing I can retire a little earlier tonight to honor my quest to get enough sleep, simply to enjoy welcoming a beautiful (or rainy, stormy, devilishly hot) new day--without having to go anywhere other than the bathroom, kitchen, and walks with Lacy, or having to do anything other than the activities of daily living that ensure health and well-being.
In retirement I have LESS stuff but MORE satisfaction with life. Managing other people's lives is not my job anymore. I'm here to offer my opinions, when asked, offer support, when it's necessary or asked for, pray for a Higher Power to guide those I love, and especially those I do not love.
This holiday season, I'm vested in pursuing serenity, as the Serenity Prayer says:
God, grant me the Serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
The Courage
to change the things I can, and
the Wisdom
to know the difference.
No comments:
Post a Comment