My first few months after retirement, I wandered around amazed at how wonderful it was to have no clinical responsibilities and no overhead for the first time in 35 years. It was a marvelous feeling. I retired in April and headed to France in September with my daughter, and the trip renewed my love for travel.
We develop a new world view when we travel and see life with a new set of eyes.
After the wonder of the trip wore off, I was faced with a quest for significance in retirement. After months of regrouping, cleaning out the house, and purging all things irrelevant, it was time to figure out the purpose of my new life.
Finding significance in retirement has not been easy for me. For an overachiever, workaholic, and Type A personality, not having purpose and direction in retirement was not an option.
I published my last book at the end of 2016, and I paid for a WordPress website to be built with the intent of writing. The publishing of Whispers of the Spirit was such a devastating experience, that I froze up and refused to write until COVID. I heard God clearly in the past few months say, “Write.”
In France, I discovered I had a strong bent toward art and painting, but didn’t know I had any talent until I returned home and started taking art lessons. I was almost 70 years old before God uncovered the artistic gift of painting. It took a trip to France and strolling through Monet’s gardens and Impressionistic art museums in Paris before the gift of painting was extended to me. This gift had been lying dormant all of my life, and I didn’t even know it.
After three years of searching for significance in retirement, I have finally found myself. The plan and direction of the Lord finally makes sense to me.
What has God gifted and called you to do? It seems I ask you that question in some form every day, but I guess it is important.
Teaching Bible studies is probably the most important thing I do, but writing and talking with each of you everyday is the next most important thing. From the email and comments, I receive from so many of you, it seems like we are on a life journey of discovery together.
The more I write, the more I find my true self and my significance in retirement.
I don’t know what role painting plays in terms of significance, but I know I love the learning and discovery process. Maybe one day, after training with wonderful teachers, I will be able to truly capture the glory of God in the landscape and seascape with oil and canvas. But for now, I am a long way from that goal. But, nonetheless, it….
Gives me significance as I discover the joy of becoming an artist and venture into an unknown realm.
Search for your significance and fine your true self on the journey.
If you have enjoyed this writing, please go to my blog site and subscribe at drbrendaramboauthor.com . Comments and conversation are welcome. You can also purchase Whispers of the Spirit, a devotional book, at this website.
Brenda, one does not stop doing stuff when you retire. I took on the role of mom for two of my granddaughters. God blessed me with them. They are very close to graduation days and college. I don’t think I will ever retire. 🙂
After an entire life spent in the business world and simultaneously singing in a band, and raising a daughter, I found retirement a difficult adjustment. It’s been five years now, and I am still wondering what to do with the rest of my life. The largest obstacle is the exhaustion I feel after such a busy life and the slight apathy. I so wish to have the energy I once had in order to pursue a new path for the next 20-30 years (depending, of course, on God’s plan for me). I am constantly reading articles and books to find answers to how one can re-energize with diet, exercise, centering, inspirational reading, etc., and still it persists. Doctors do not seem to be able to help women pinpoint if this is physical, mental or a combination. There is much I would like to do if I could just regain most of the energy I once possessed.
Enjoying God’s plan at every turn. I just retired today and have so much I want to do just don’t know where to start. But for right now I am enjoying the freedom.