Retirement?
We are here today, standing on a rolling ball, trying to maintain our balance yet balanced by an unseen hand.
We are suspended between the ground beneath and the sky above and somehow unimpressed.
We are ever bumping into one another and looking the other way with muttered apologies for living.
We see through and around and over and under with the illusion of our own invisibility.
We are witnesses to what we are and what we know and who we know and choose to live in anonymity.
And we live on, day after day, moment after moment in the drudgery of routine and the ritual of sameness moving steadily toward some undefined goal we call "retirement."
Retirement from what?
Indeed we are tired, but not from engagement, not from work. Work never wearied a soul engaged in purposeful pursuit. Work invigorates, regenerates, and illuminates our lives for what they are and are to be ....
We ...
We are called, chosen, and unfrozen to be instruments of peace, to sow seeds of love, kindness, joy, and healing.
And if we ever get caught up with that, we can talk about retirement.
So get up, get connected, feed your face, wash your teeth, and move out.
Good morning folks!
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I am doing what I want to do! And hopefully, making a difference.
Fund Development Director at The Piney Woods School
6 个月Great and truthful article.
Keeping families intact through in-home senior care
6 个月Hey Tom, I love your conclusion: "Work never wearied a soul engaged in purposeful pursuit. Work invigorates, regenerates, and illuminates our lives for what they are and are to be ...." I now experience that daily - at age 68, having "retired" a couple of years ago to start a new business that serves people in need. It does invigorate me, illuminates my life, regenerates my soul like no other "job" has ever done. We are made to work, and it's good. By the way, I think I also still have my CompuServe binder like yours in your bookshelf. Why I keep it, I don't know. I think I was [email protected] - or something like that. Blessings, Tom!
Therapist Blog at Myron Doc Downing PhD
6 个月Everything I do is what I want to do. I've never done anything I did not want to do. There have been many things in my life that I did not enjoy doing, but for whatever reason, I wanted to do them. Maybe it was for a paycheck, or maybe it was because I loved the person or because I didn't want to get shot. If somebody else or something else is making me do it, then I will be a victim. Everything is my fault. . . . . . . . . If I am lucky. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If it is my fault, I can change it. If someone else or something did it to me, then I would be a victim. Nothing is a failure if I learn from it. If I want to be really successful, I need to give myself the freedom to fail more and learn how to do it differently next.