Work was a previous life
by Jay
I retired at 56 after putting in 37 years, took my pension and never looked back.
After getting up for years at 5am and getting to bed by 10pm, I quickly found I liked to stay up until 2-3am and wake up at 9-10am. The first year of doing this, it felt sinful to keep such hours. But I got used to it. I figured I would do volunteer work eventually but they all wanted early get-ups and I didn't retire to do more of that!
Once, many years before retirement, I happened to take a whole month of vacation, in August. Usually, I'd take a week here, a week there, where each day of vacation I'd get up and think, "Ok this is Monday. This is Tuesday, This is Wednesday," etc., as I counted the days to return to work.
But something wonderful happened when I took that month off. I found that after about a week and a half, I quit counting the days each morning nor was the return to work around the corner. In that spread of vacation, I found a timelessness in my days that was so peaceful and zen-like that I knew retirement someday was for me.
Every year since then, up to my retirement, I took a month off, joking to myself that I was practicing for retirement. That timelessness feeling cannot be beat. And now I live it every day. I do whatever I want, even if nothing much. No rush to here or there. No clocks.
I worked hard for this part of my life and I am glad for what I have now.
