Retirement

This month marks five years since I officially “retired”.   It’s true that I had been “transitioning” to full retirement for a number of years prior to that and that the amount of actual productive work I was doing had been declining (although I  only got paid for what I actually did).   

In hindsight, the ability to be able to “wind down” made all the difference to me.    This related to the companionship offered in the office environment as much as the intellectual endeavour.   In time before I finished, a number of work colleagues also departed, and this process has, I understand, continued since then.    So the office environment changed a lot.    Since fully retiring, I’ve made an effort  to keep up with a range of contacts, none of whom are still with the firm.    I’ve made an effort to retain a number of other interests which has helped a lot, but now I find I need to step back even from some of these.

The world, too, has changed, especially with “covid”.    For now, I’m grateful just for the fortune (good and even the not-so-good) that has come my way over the years.