So this is what it might feel like?

I had a few quiet weeks this summer. I read, web surfed, ignored the backlog of accounting that needed to be entered into the system, dealt with some technology issues, poked around in my garden, cooked some good meals …and realized that I was bored to tears because there wasn’t enough of the good stuff to really sink my teeth into. And it gave me an idea of what traditional retirement might be like. Things to do, for sure …

…but underneath it all is a vague sense of unease, like something important is missing, like ‘filling in time’ isn’t just cutting it. I had the luxury of knowing that this was just a temporary phase in my life and I could wallow in the glory of it all. But I bet that if I knew this would be my life for the next twenty years or so I’d be feeling quite different about it. Life would start to feel heavy and flat pretty darned quickly, I suspect.

It makes me wonder if we shouldn’t be making “trial retirements” available to people: 3-month periods where you get the opportunity to live like you think you want to during retirement. A trial marriage sort of arrangement. I wonder how many of us would end up changing our plans for the shape our retirement would take or even changing our minds about retirement and working longer if we had the opportunity for a trial run?

~ by gwenmccauley on October 13, 2007.