Wednesday, September 13, 2017

The Big Question - What Do You Do In Retirement?

I guess it happens to everyone who retires. People are always asking what are you doing in retirement? In the beginning of my retirement in 2011, I actually found myself making things up because there seemed to be this expectation that you had to do something. I actually told one person that I was going to read the internet. He looked confused and moved on. People of course had their own ideas on how I should be spending my time and most of it didn't appeal to me. What I have found is that people evolve in their own retirement. They find their own interests, projects, community and people that they choose to spend time with.

Having experienced the question fairly often, I was happy the other day to hear what the great songwriter, John Prine, says about his daily life. It seems to fit my routine pretty well. “I do as little as possible. I do a lot of little chores; ones that most people would take care of in half an hour, I stretch them out over a day. I always try to include lunch. If it’s a really slow day, I include a nap. By the time the 5 o’clock news rolls around, my day is done.” Amen!

Now John Prine is nowhere near retirement. He continues to write, tour, sing and he has a great way with words. He's a great storyteller and I love a good story. I've told a few myself and retirement is a great place to hone the skill. Prine has a book called Beyond Words that gathers thoughts and pictures and songs together. But here's an example of his storytelling about his first job at Skip's and his thoughts about bees John Prine and his job at Skip's. You can skip the ad in 4, 3, 2, 1 seconds.


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