The golden era of retirement

Get up. Get showered. Get dressed. Get breakfast. I used to sit down at my desktop, in lockdown, and assist tertiary students with their English. Now I’m retired from educating the future of our land, but I’m still feeling jolly about it all.

These days, I spend more time on my morning exercise routine and building up my reps. My health is better than it’s been for a while. So far, so good. My financial resources are okay, that shall no doubt diminish over my time in retirement. I promise I won’t spend it all on Tattslotto!

In post-lockdown Australia, I can attend my social groups in the community again. I belong to a writer’s group and a women’s craft group. These are both no-obligation, informal meetings of sharing, coffee, good fun, and constructive support of each other.

So far, in my retirement happy honeymoon, I have no time to get bored. I have a whole library of books to explore. I read my favourite authors and am now exploring the space section, with my long term interest in our cosmos.

In the retirement era of my little corner of the world, whether it is a honeymoon of expectations or not, it’s easy to slide into retirement “talk”. Typical for a chatty one like me.

“Need some rain!”

“Good for the garden!”

Too true. My retired friends and I are all dodging the audiologists, ain’t they sweet? Deafness can be a boon to ageing.

The older ladies and I have all survived the caring of our geriatric parents. I also cared for a geriatric. It’s so cool to be kind. They never walked alone. Some days (ongoing), we all need inner strength to “play on” the hand that fate deals us.

Nowadays, I get into bed at a most reasonable hour, thinking “In the global and universal big picture, nothing bad happened today”. My friends, family and I all woke up – hope we wake up tomorrow. I enjoyed a slow news day in a slow news town, making fun the senior way.

In the retirement-happy honeymoon years, we don’t need to sweat the small stuff, just take care of stuff. As we grow old (just as our elders grew old), we may need others to take care of our stuff. All perfectly normal. Not to panic.

Personally, as I’m retired, I am still enjoying “free time”.  I can sit and reflect in a little palace of dreams, to be a writer and a poet. If necessity crept in, I have a backup plan to write resumes and cover letters for the unemployed, without ripping off the disadvantaged job seekers.

That is a realistic alternative. Here, so far, so good. To empower retirees in any part of this stage of life, we can wake up and turn frowns upside down. Anyone can make positive plans with realistic goals. Goals are good, tell my football team that! Do goals exist? Ah, rhetorical questions. Enjoy a beautiful relaxing day with bells on! Follow whatever your personal bliss is as long as you can, while you can.

Some retirement bliss can verge into a routine, even for golfers, or seniors’ aqua aerobics, or line dancing. So, we can seek new challenges or variety in our hobbies. We can join retirement groups, or work for the community as volunteers.

Many retirement honeymooners now have “free time” to spend with growing grandchildren. A couple of acquaintances have renovated their family homes, dividing them into separate units, so their adult offspring and grandchildren can share the home.

Really, circumstances differ for everyone. Retirement can be a happy honeymoon era, our golden age.

Enjoy!