What is retirement?

It’s a lazy day today.  I got up from bed a little past 8 o’clock in the morning, immediately went to the washroom for the usual routine, gathered my Bible, notebook and another book - Complete Guide to the Bible, and started reading and taking notes.  Then I ate breakfast, and did some house cleaning.  Once a week, is laundry day.

This has been my routine since I retired.  When I was still working, I did not have enough time to read my Bible.  Upon waking up each morning, I would only have about five minutes reading time, eating  breakfast in a hurry, and preparing myself for work.

Like what I wrote in my farewell letter to my friends and colleagues more than six years ago, retirement for me would be a stress-free life, a relaxed life, which I am now enjoying.

What is retirement?  A high school classmate of mine gave me a compilation of definitions of what retirement is.  Thank you, Linda, for this precious gift.

Here are some of the definitions:

Retirement is the act of having concluded one’s working or professional career with the knowledge that the best years are yet to come.

Retirement   is a time to have fun.

Retirement can be a catastrophe or a commencement, a rocking chair or a launching pad.

Retirement is the period when you stop quoting the proverb that time is money.

Retirement is the time of life when you stop lying about your age and start lying about the house.

Retirement is the beginning of a new career: we find ourselves doing what we really wanted to do – but could not for most of our lives.

The key to retirement is to have enough money to live on, but not enough to worry about.

Retirement is wonderful if you have two essentials:  much to live on and much to live for.

A wife’s definition of retirement:  Twice as much husband, and half as much income.

I would like to quote the words of my good friend:  “Life is a never ending learning process and we should do just that and not allow ourselves to stagnate.   It is having more time for a deeper spiritual life, more time for prayer and communication with our Creator.”

I completely agree with what my friend said.  Being a loner, I focused on my tasks while I was still working, not having enough time to bond with my friends and officemates.  I also did not have enough time to meditate on God’s Word.  But now that I have more time, I have committed to read the whole Bible, mediate on it, and spend time on prayer.  I am now able to bond with friends, having sharing times with them, encouraging one another, praying for one another,  thanking God for all His blessings.

So, for me retirement is the time when I can do the more important things in life. Retirement is the time when one is done providing for the needs of her children, done teaching them the fear of the Lord which to my opinion is the most important thing that a parent should teach her children.  Retirement is having more time to commune with God, appreciating  all His creation, blessings and sharing with others what good things God has done for me, and encouraging them that God will also bless them  if they allow God to be at the center of their lives.

I thank God for everything, for the blessings, for the trials, for everything He has allowed to come my way.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 – In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.