As spring comes to an end and summer is with us, I will be leaving my job here at the Dells Events, retiring to travel and visit family.
My first big trip is to Italy with an old friend and her daughter, a place I have never been. I thought it was best to start retirement with something brand new just to remind myself there are new horizons in life.
When I moved here I wasn’t sure how long I would stay. As it turned out the year grew into two and now it’s been nearly five years I have spent going around to city and town meetings, visiting police departments, interviewing residents-old and young, poking around the schools, taking photos of kids and generally falling in love with this odd little community.
I have only a couple more weeks here at the Events, perhaps another column and I will miss it all, especially my fellow travelers here at the paper.
I have had the good fortune of several interesting careers in my life and when I move and change jobs it always felt like I retired.
My Dad spent most of his working years at the U.S. Forest Service, retiring early and then putting in a few more years with Wisconsin’s DNR. After that he always kept busy with woodworking and odd jobs at Upham Woods 4-H camp. I have his good example to follow of how to retire with grace and purpose.
So I plan to stop coming to work every day, but I do not plan to stop working, I’m just not sure what that will look like.
I never expected to wind up in a little Wisconsin tourist town writing for a newspaper, and I realize how much I learned in my years here. One case in point is the example of so may older residents who spend their retirement years giving to the community by volunteering, serving on boards and as members of service clubs and churches.
I also never expected to be independent and single at this time of my life, but I have learned that being old and single is inevitable for most as I watched my elder relatives lose spouses.
It is a challenge and, one can hope, an exciting adventure to have ten or even twenty more years with few ties and maximum freedom. Money is always an issue, but I have lived my life without making decisions based on money as much as I could.
The threat of ill health and financial disaster always looms. But, I figure, if that comes it will come, whether I worry about it or not, so I try not to worry. I learned long ago we can plan and save for the future, but grief and hardship come to all.
So I am off on an adventure that will take me I know not where. In a way I identify with those high school seniors also leaving home toward a big question mark.
I was inspired by Maya Angelo, quoted in the “Utne Reader” recently, this echoes my feelings exactly:
“At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough. No record of it needs to be kept and you don’t need someone to share it with or tell it to. When that happens-that letting go-you let go because you can.”