Retirees Have the Gift of Time

After forty years of working ten-hour days and sometimes more than five days a week, I couldn’t believe the freedom I had when I retired.  I quickly found out that retirees have the gift of time.  There is no morning commute or meetings to rush to.  There are no conference calls or new projects assigned to you out of nowhere.  You can linger over your morning coffee and control your day from the time you get up to the time you go to bed.  It’s a freedom that many people sometimes take for granted.

The danger is to not use your time wisely.  That, I believe, is the mistake of people who tell me they’re bored in retirement.  Time is the most precious thing there is so it makes sense to put some effort into using it wisely.  Yes, it’s true that the commitments and deadlines from your working days are no longer imposed upon you, but that doesn’t mean your days shouldn’t be planned out.  The difference is that you’re in control and you can choose what activities you devote your attention to.  Retirement is wonderful compared to my days in the workforce.

Retirees have the Gift of Time, but many do not use it wisely.

It's very easy for me to find something that is going to hold my interest.  The world has so many things to offer, and there is a vast array of topics I’m fascinated with and have a desire to learn more about.  I find the history of our country to be as unbelievable as almost any soap opera.  If you take any event in time and explore what led up to it and then read about the people involved in it, it becomes clear that the problems we have today are nothing new.  Traveling to different parts of the country has given us the chance to see where things happened and, sometimes, to experience a new culture.  Although we are all Americans, there are differences from one region to another.  We sometimes are in too big a rush to notice the little things.  Retirees have the gift of time, and they can spend a few more hours in a local museum than those who are on a more limited schedule.  We are visiting places that we had been to before but are now spending more time in because we’re retired and don’t have to get back to a job.  One of my favorite historic sites is the Alamo and on our last visit I saw every exhibit and presentation there was to see and reviewed the future development plans that they have.  The first time through, it was a quick tour and then we were on our way to other places.  Retirees have the gift of time, and they should take advantage of that whenever they can.

This gets even more important when you go to other countries.  I know that everyone takes a course in world history at some point in school, but there’s so much more to learn.  In the United States we some buildings that might be three hundred years old while Europe has structures that are over a thousand years old with a history that is just as fascinating.  I understand that history can be boring for some people, but I contend that they find it boring because of the way that it was taught.  There is something totally different from reading about the medieval era and standing in front of a castle that can be explored and an exhibition of the armor that knights used.  History seems to come alive when you’re standing in the spot where it took place.  Reading about Plato and Aristotle and seeing pictures of the Parthenon was interesting, but walking through the same structures they did is a whole different experience.  We get to truly enjoy that now because retirees have the gift of time.

Obviously, this luxury applies to things other than history.  Enjoying a great meal with friends with no one worried about getting up early for work the next day is something to be treasured as often as we can.  We have learned to schedule these events whether it’s a trip to another country or cooking a dinner for our neighbors.  If anything, we tend to overschedule ourselves but that’s a nice problem to have.  Time is our greatest gift, and we need to treat it like that.  We need to notice and appreciate the simple things in life because they’re often the most important.  When we travel, we actually schedule some time with nothing to do so that we can relax and enjoy the moment.  If we want to take a walk, we can.  Or, if we want to take a nap, we can do that as well.  Retirees have the gift of time and it’s something that many of them don’t take advantage of.  Make it a point to get to work on your list of things to do and new things to explore.  Keep a little notebook and make a list of things you want to learn more about.  There’s so much the world has to offer.  It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!

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