Retirement - A New Beginning

Today marks two years since I retired. I am not sure where the time has gone, but I am loving the quiet and solitude this new chapter brings.

One of the keys to a healthy retirement is to have a vision, to dream new dreams. It gives life to our soul.

For 25 years I identified myself as a Personnel Support Worker (PSW). But when I made the decision to retire from my job in long-term care, at the age of 55, due to recurring back issues, I wasn’t left wondering what the next chapter would hold.

A few years prior to retirement, I had taken up blogging, thanks to my daughter, and so this new chapter became an opportunity for me to enhance my writing skills further, which has opened up a whole new world of learning for me.

I realize retirement can mean different things to different people, though. Not everyone has the choice to retire early, like I did, nor do some want to. And while my transition wasn’t a difficult one, some do go into retirement with dread, and rightly so. It’s not easy giving up work-life routine or the social interaction and purpose associated with it.

However, life is a journey that is meant to be lived, a journey that comes in stages, and we must learn to embrace each stage and be grateful for life, as is. Because it’s a given, change will come. We can’t escape it. And neither can we grow without it.

Don’t allow age to become the barrier that detours you from your dreams. When one door closes, why not open another one?

Winston Churchill once said: “A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” Which one are you? I know I can be both. But I have worked hard to keep the scale tipped toward the optimistic side.