Create Every Day

I’ve been retired now for about a month, and let me tell you, it feels great. I sleep late, I eat well, I’m in better shape than I was a month ago, and I’m generally happier with life than I was before.

All things that I was hoping for in taking a break.

Of course, there have been a few things that I didn’t expect. Like the fact that I haven’t been writing about all of my adventures! I was planning on taking a lot of time to concentrate on my writing, but as it turns out I haven’t done a lick of writing this whole month. So what gives? Well, I think when it comes down to it I haven’t been that interested in writing (at least on the blog front) because I’ve been in a content-generation phase. Blogging, as least for me, is something that I do when I don’t have anything terribly interesting to do, and I’m happy to report that my days have been jam-packed with things to do. (Don’t worry, though… I’ve got plenty of notes. Blog posts are coming, I promise!)

As I start in on the second half of my allotted two months of vacation, however, I’m noticing a subtle shift in my mindset. I’m in the downswing of the trip, and I’m starting to think about what I’m going to do with my remaining vacation time. Funny… it’s actually the same feeling I get when I’m traveling for an extended period: the first half of the trip is liberating because you have all the time in the world on your hands. The second half of the trip you can feel precisely how much time you have left, and you want to do everything possible to maximize that precious time.

So anyway, not to belabor the point, but I predict that I’ll start posting more things in the coming weeks. If I’m really clever I’ll even put together a back-log so that I can make updates at semi-regular intervals.

But we’ll see how that goes. 🙂

Oh, and I’ll start putting up pictures, too. ‘Cause the Internet likes pretty pictures.

The retired life is pretty nice.

Yes, that’s right: retired.

I get a lot of people that, when I tell them I’m retired try to correct me with other euphemisms: between jobs, taking a break, on sabbatical, temporarily unemployed. My buddy Ian calls it “pre-tirement.” My brother says I’m a bum.

He’s probably the closest, to tell you the truth. 🙂 Some days I don’t get anything done. And it feels wonderful.

But I don’t think in those terms. I’m not between jobs right now. I don’t have any plans for another job right now. I mean, I’ll probably end up finding one. But that’s not set in stone. Instead, I’m trying out the concept of considering myself retired. As in, I’ve got enough money saved up to see me through for a while; I have a nice, well-organized (yet surprisingly lenient) budget; and I have nothing I need to accomplish for work.

All of which means that I can devote all of my time to my family, my home, and any personal pursuits that interest me. Oh, and I get to sleep as much as I want. 🙂 Having that much discretionary time at my disposal is proving to be one of the most rejuvenating things I’ve ever done.

I doing yoga.

I’m painting again.

I’m taking pictures again.

I’m writing again.

I’m listening to good music.

I eating gourmet meals that Dore and I prepare from scratch almost every day.

I can stay up late every night of the week.

And it feels great.