Finding Gratitude in Retirement

We’ve all heard about the attitude of gratitude that we’re all supposed to have.  Some people get so sick of hearing about it they do everything to mock and discourage it.  However, I know firsthand that finding gratitude in retirement will turn your life completely around.  If you focus on something to be grateful for in your life, you can feel your whole mood change.  It can’t be just a passing thought but rather a careful and prolonged meditation on something wonderful in your life.  And no matter how bad things appear from time to time, there is always something wonderful in your life if you look hard enough.

Surprisingly, I have found that the people who have faced extremely tough situations are the ones who have taught me the wisdom of finding gratitude in retirement or at any other stage of my life.  Something in their suffering gave them an insight into the wonders of this world and its creation.  Let’s face it, there are wonderful things all around us.  The sun rose this morning with an amazing brilliance and show of colors that started the birds chirping before the first rays broke over the horizon.  It will set with even more breathtaking colors and give way to a light show in the sky that has kept human beings mesmerized for hours.  Those stars were the only means of navigation centuries ago and looking upward is still the best GPS system there is.

Finding gratitude in retirement can literally change your life.

When you take a moment to take inventory of all that you’ve been given in life, you start to realize that you have much more to be thankful for than you thought.  Some people forget how fortunate they are simply to have been able to get to retirement.  Every day is a gift.  In the United States we sometimes don’t realize how prosperous even the poorest among us are compared to the rest of the world and how thankful we should be to be living in peace.  Generations of people in the Middle East have known nothing but war and there are wars and violence going on throughout the world.

We can find ourselves getting into a rut of complaining if we’re not careful.  Finding gratitude in retirement will help you more than you know and don’t be surprised if someone comments on the change in your personality.  It is hard to be unhappy when you find things to be grateful for.  And there are many things to be grateful for.  Nature is a great place to start to help you in finding gratitude in retirement.

If you’re not a hiker, try going on a walk in a park or by water if that’s possible.  Start to notice the small things you may have taken for granted before like the colors of the flowers or how the birds take off and land.  I am constantly amazed when I see a large bird like a hawk or an eagle or even a gull float through the air and keep their flight going with just a flap of their wings here or there.  If the season is right, watch the insects, especially the bees, move from flower to flower.  That’s nature at work and if you take the time to think about it, you can’t help but wonder about creation itself and how every flower blooms in the spring and birds hatch their eggs and there is a perfect rhythm to everything in creation.  It’s a wonder to behold and we’ve been given the chance to enjoy this incredible world that we live in. 

By not finding gratitude in retirement, we end up taking all of this for granted.  Life is a gift that we’ve been given and each of us has been given wonderful talents to use to their fullest.  It would be an absolute waste not to use them.  The best way we can show gratitude and thanks for what we’ve been given is to make the most of ourselves.  There are things that only you can do.  We are all unique for a reason and that reason is worth thinking about because it’s part of the reason why you’re here.

Finding gratitude in retirement is part of that “thank you” we owe to our creator.  Take a look at the stars on some clear evening and you will realize how small and insignificant you are.  And yet, we have been given an entire world to enjoy.  We’ve been given the chance to see as much of it as we can and to enjoy all the pleasures it holds.  It’s time we showed how much we appreciate what we’ve been given by living our life to the fullest and taking full advantage of the gift of retirement.  It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!

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