rechelle's lifelyrics

The other day, I had finished all my chores at home and set out to run some errands while Ray was still working (he works from home). I had several stops to make and wanted to look for a couple of kitchen tools at TJ Maxx. It was my last stop that afternoon, and I decided to take my time browsing other areas of the store as well. As I was walking through the aisles, I started getting this feeling like I was forgetting about an important thing I still had left to do, or that I was neglecting someone who needed my help, or that I was running late for the next thing. I kept having to tell myself, “You’re retired! You don’t have anyone waiting on you! You’re not missing an appointment!” I finally finished up and headed home where indeed, there was nothing urgent I needed to attend to.

A few days later, I was talking with my 81 year-old friend who has been retired about 8 years. She told me she still has to remind herself to simply enjoy deciding what to do with her time when I told her about my recent shopping conundrum. She said, “Rechelle, we’ve spent so many years taking care of everyone else, it’s a big adjustment!” It was comforting to hear her identify with what I was feeling. I decided it would be a good thing to put into words on my blog.

Ray and I have been watching a lot of videos about retirement as he gets closer to the time when he will join me in creating a new free-form lifestyle that isn’t structured by an employer’s requirements. We’ve been hearing how important it is to define purpose in daily life for a good framework. It makes me thankful that I created my own “dream job” at home when I retired from full time employment almost 3 years ago. I’ve been very busy almost every day, but  there are still evenings I find myself reviewing the list of tasks I accomplished in order to validate my existence in retirement. I just want to remind myself, and anyone else out there, that it’s ok to slow down and enjoy the freedom of having a little spare time every now and then.