Your Retirement Book

Have you written your book yet?  I happen to believe that everyone has a book in them.  Whether it’s a journal of their life, their travels or their favorite recipes, there’s a sense of accomplishment when you capture your thoughts on paper.  Your retirement book may be the best thing you will ever do.  It’s a way to leave a little piece of you behind that others will appreciate when you’re gone.  I wish my parents had kept a journal of their life.  They lived through the Depression and World War II and met on New Year’s Eve in Times Square in 1940.  My father was in the Navy and everyone knew a world war was not far away.  They were married before Pearl Harbor but most of their first five years of marriage were spent communicating through letters and hastily planned getaways when my father got stationed in an American port.  Their stories about Tampa, Tacoma, San Diego and Norfolk kept us entertained for hours.  My mother traveled by herself by train from New York to wherever my father was going to be.  It was a different world – no widespread telephone service, no television, no internet or e-mail.  I sat down with my father toward the end of his life and wrote down all his memories.  It was good for him to recall everything that happened in his life.  Everyone should take the time to do that.  Your retirement book is waiting to be written.

Your retirement book can be your Life story.

I had considered writing for a living but “living” got in the way.  There was no way I could support a family based on the rejection letters that I received for the stories and articles that I sent out but that didn’t put an end to the dream.  A lot of people I know had that same dream.  Some have kept at it and a few have got something published.  I took the easy way out and started this website.  It’s very fulfilling, more fun than I ever expected it to be and my submissions never get turned down although I’m sure some of them should have been.  So, what about your retirement book?

Before you dismiss the question, let me ask you a question.  How can anyone get to retirement age and not have something to talk about or have an opinion or perspective that they don’t want to share?  Even if you leave the story of your life for your family to read, you have added value to someone else's life in a way that you might not think is possible.  We come to know very few people in our life in an in-depth way.  But if people shared more of themselves with others, we would build bridges for communication rather than walls for division.  Historians realized the value of simple letters from people who lived in the past.  Letters from soldiers during the Civil War told them much about the day-to-day existence in the battlefield.  We always think of letters between important people, like the ones sent from Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, as being the only ones that mattered, but the letters from simple soldiers to their families provided a wealth of knowledge about those historic times.

We underestimate the power of the written word.  The power lies in the words themselves, of course, and the impact it has on other people.  But it gives the writer an inner power as well when they are able to express themselves and tell a little bit about their story.  We all have a story to tell or something to say before we leave this earth.  To live for fifty or sixty years or more and not have something to say is, in my opinion, not being honest.  Everyone has observations about life that will help others and the lessons you learned need to be heard by others.  Even if your retirement book is like the autobiography assignment, we all had to do in school at one time or another, your recollections are important to those around you.  Many people write down their memories as a family history and trace their lineage as far back as it can.  It is a very revealing exercise to sit down and try to capture your life in words.  It is amazing to remember all the twists and turns that resulted in your being where you are today.  Your retirement book is unique.  Only you can write it and, if you have any advice or words of wisdom to share, don’t hold back.

We don’t think twice about reading the memoirs of famous people and we regard it as a privilege to know what they were thinking during the most important times of their life.  Their stories can be uplifting and so can yours.  So why not give it a try?  Get to work on your retirement book.  I think you’ll be surprised at how much fun it can be.  Who knows, you may find out that you like to write.  Open up the possibilities and Enjoy Retired Life!      

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