reflectionsonretirement

In error I have renewed my membership till 2024! Will I be alive then I ask myself but heh one must try if not remain positively focussed to make the last `golden years’ good ones.

I will try and write something most days. I do a lot of emails and that contains a lot of content that would to record here.

Only joking to a certain extent. I have been doing a lot of extra shifts (nurse practitioner in a sexual health facility) and have really enjoyed being back `in harness’. It is good to mix with the young (staff and patients) and it keeps one (me) tuned into social behaviour. When one lives alone it is easy to become isolated and insular in your thinking. The work has been physically challenging but it has kept my mind ticking over and given me a sense of thankfulness about my own life. Working as a nurse you see the whole spectrum of human life including a privileged insight into those who have not been dealt a good hand. Life is hard for some people and most bear their unhappiness with fortitude and good grace. It often occurs to me that I would not be able to cope with what a lot of people have to put up with. One of the regular sessions I do is for young people (under 20) and I am humbled by some of their life stories : growing up in care or situations of abuse. I try to treat all the people I meet with respect both in terms of what they want from their clinic visit to helping them come to a decision about health matters.

Work seems so important to me that I have found it so hard to give it up (retire). I would really like to value my `free’ time but health issues put a lot of things out of my reach (travel for one). It is amazing how over the last ? ten years the focus has moved from early retirement to a work to you drop mentality which for some with limited resources will not be a choice but a necessity. For me it is a choice and although I do not regret leaving full-time work I do wish to remain `gainfully’ employed as long as possible.

I feel that this blog may come across as patronizing and I don’t intend that: only a thankfulness for where I am now in my life…

I spent a long afternoon writing my first post and then it disappeared into the void.  Where I know not.  It was a big disappointment as I had carefully constructed my initial mixed thoughts about retirement.  Maybe it was meant to be as it was quite negative overall suggesting that a great deal of planning needs to be done before undertaking a major life change like retirement.  A bit of an obvious sentiment really on reflection but something a lot of us do.  It is like a giant race to retirement and we crash over the finish line exhausted and happy (ish) and then after cooling down and taking stock some of us wonder well what next. This occurs for those of us who are not volunteers or bitten by the travel bug.  I had (and still do) intended to move back to the place of my birth : Canada. For various reasons I have ended up living in London (UK) for 39 years but like an elephant I still hanker for `home’ at the end of my days.  I love London but I think as we get older there is always a special place in your heart for where you grew up.  Sometimes it is just misplaced nostalgia based on memories with no real substance.  But life is what you make it and I think that I would rather do something and then think oh well that was not the right decision perhaps, let’s go back to square one rather than regret not trying. I will stop now in case I lose this post!