Retirement minus 7 days: Blackbird

'Retirement is the ugliest word in the language' (Ernest Hemingway)

This week will be my last week at full time work after 41 years. I will spend the week reflecting on this uncertain concept to help me understand what is next! It gives me a little bit of a shudder as well as a tinge of excitement. I thought it might help to reflect on this momentous occasion, well momentous for me anyway, and during the course of the next few days I am seeking to find a quote which matches my expectations of this change. I am starting with this Hemingway quote, which is widely quoted but for which I could not find the origin. It expresses how I certainly would have felt just a few years ago. I have always rejected the over neat and unhelpful demarcation between work and life. The so-called work-life balance is a bureaucratic device used by human resources to ensure that we do not over work and we ensure balance in our everyday lives. Yet for me my mood, has always been enhanced by my work and I have never felt the need to measure one aspect of my life with another. It's reductionist character does not help me determine happiness , contentment or appropriateness. It merely suggests a negative, that too much of one will impact, by implication, negatively, on other aspects. I have found in general if work is good then other aspects of my life work too.

I wonder whether I have been privileged to enjoy an employment which has never failed to fascinate, challenge and stimulate me throughout my life. I hear friends retiring who appear to have run out of interest or commitment to their work and I fully get that. Every individual determines their own path and for some reaching retirement is a rite of passage jealously guarded and planned for. I have close friends who exemplify the essence of a good retirement - enough cash, plenty to do but time to do nothing, new interests including grandparenthood which seems to be a joy for many - this seems like a goal worth heading for, yet for me, I am less convinced. Why? Well all life choices are based around our particular circumstances and three things govern my choices - health, wealth and self-worth.

Health has certainly driven this decision at this time. But I have enough money (I think) and I have plenty to do. So I am not worried about retirement per se but not sure I would have gone down this route if I was fully fit.

Anyway enough thought for today. I would be interested if anyone has any good quotes about retirement. I want to find the right quote for me by the time the week is ended. It is going to be an interesting week!