Musings
About retirement… and random other things!
These blogs first appear as weekly columns in the Red Deer Advocate
Reshaping the meaning of retirement
'Can you spot the ashtray under the rotary phone I'm answering in 1984? But even then I wasn't taking work too seriously.' A recent ‘future retiree survey’ out of Ontario shows that over 35 per cent of more than 1400 respondents have either decided to retire or are considering it – and more than half of them plan to work either full time or part...
Let the right message sink in
I was cleaning my kitchen the other night when a slogan from the bottle of dishwashing liquid caught my eye. ‘Trusted for over 100 years’, it stated. I stood looking at that for a long time. Do you trust the soap you wash dishes with? Do you have to? Like, have you ever been disdainfully untrusting of any dish soap? It’s not like bottles of dish...
Make your retirement make sense to you
I love that I’m starting to receive some feedback about this column! I’m not digging around social media too deeply, mind you, but the verbal and email comments from people around me are encouraging. Okay, so maybe it’s just a couple of friends who have mentioned a few things in passing – but it’s still welcome! My friend Lorraine is an eternally...
The importance of volunteering
Recently-retired people get all kinds of invitations to volunteer, which makes perfect sense as we supposedly have lots of newfound time to fill. Many people have the good fortune of beginning retirement while still full of energy, interest and compassion, along with an innate sense of responsibility. It’s the ‘go-go’ stage for us! And many of us...
Let the opportunities come to you
It was nearly a year ago when I stood up from the conversation when I first informed my boss that I was going to retire and I walked to the staffroom to make myself a cup of tea. Funny how tea can both wake you up and calm you down! I was certainly searching for calm after that heady declaration. The tea bag I chose had a tiny folded piece of...
The heart of the city
When I moved to Red Deer from a town down the highway, I was shown how to maneuver around the outskirts of the city each morning to avoid the traffic lights and the jostle of morning commuters (yes, there is a morning rush hour outside the major centres!). It was a fellow I used to work with who showed me how to plot my strategy. From where I...
Joy
I know we get laughed at in Canada because, well, we’re Canadian. Living in igloos and such, as the saying goes in other parts of the world, and walking around my favourite urban pond the other day in minus 40 weather may well have proven their point. Except for the fact that 40 below can be stunningly beautiful! The crystal clear blue sky in...
All I really need to know about retirement I learned in kindergarten
Nearing the end of my first full month of retirement, I decided to take a trip. Sounds a bit cliché, but my sister and her spouse are spending the winter in Mexico and asked me to come down. I scheduled a week in the sun, far from phones and the slight turmoil of transitioning from work. I figured this was perfect timing – a great way to leap to...
Feeling slightly lost, but mostly happy
'Okay, so I was a pretty cute four year old - just not too bright, since this is around the time I wandered around Sears not even knowing I was lost!' When I was four years old, I got lost at Simpson Sears. Yes, Simpson Sears, which was a cultural shopping destination for middle-class suburban families in the 1960s, but was to be phased out in...