I hope you are enjoying this blogging journey! I welcome your thoughts, questions, feedback, cool ideas you have come up with, any roadblocks you have experienced in getting your notebook list going…or just anything! The fun of these blogs is in the exchange of ideas…everyone’s experience is different, and everyone has valuable input, and I want this to be your journey, too! Please remember, though to be respectful of each other’s thoughts even if you disagree (and to mine too, please!) Thanks, and looking forward to your input.
Today I wanted to begin talking about my need to still have purpose in my retirement. I have always been goal-oriented and I don’t expect that to change just because I am not driving to a job every day. My goal is not just to have time fillers, but to accomplish something for myself, for my husband and me as a couple and for my children and grandchildren, and for my church and friends.
That should keep me busy! Lots of places/ways I want to continue to have purpose!
For today, I want to start homing in on “purpose” for Dave and me as a couple, since I believe this will be very important to pay attention to so we both have a fulfilling retirement. We have spent a lot of years together, but most of them started out each day getting up, getting kids ready to go, getting ourselves ready to go work, coming home, getting dinner together, getting kids to activities and making sure homework was done…etc, etc. You know the drill! Except maybe on vacation weeks, there wasn’t a lot of just time to be together…to talk about US…to realize who “US” was.
When Dave and I are both retired, our schedule will be completely different. Actually, Dave just retired at the end of 2017, so he is working through his own change of circumstances even now. I will talk about that in a later blog. But it is different for me…it is hard for me right now to be the only one who “has to get out” in the morning first thing. Some of the house chores are in flux as we try to figure out what makes sense now. So, our very basic “who are we as a couple” discussions have started, and we have had interesting conversations from the “just retired and figuring it out” perspective, and from the “I can’t wait till it’s my turn” perspective. But, who we are is about more than who does what chore…so I am excited to see where those conversations lead us. Not surprisingly (at least, I hope by this point in our blogging journey together you would expect this), Dave and I getting to know each other more deeply especially in this new and upcoming phase of life, is one thing on my list. It is something I am both excited and perhaps a little nervous about! Excited because I see a richer depth to our relationship. Nervous because change and baring feelings is always a bit nerve-wracking, no matter how close you are to someone!
If you have a spouse, I hope your list includes learning more about each other during this new and exciting period in your lives! If you don’t have a spouse, I hope your list includes further-developing your closest relationships!
Till next time,
Mary