Retiring after ‘The year of living dangerously’

I’m sitting in my dining room as the sun pours in snuggled up in my cozy reading chair. It’s been a bit cramped in here for the past 3 weeks given our living room has been sealed off because of a brick crumbling problem on the outside of our building. We should have it back brand spanking newly painted and repaired in time for Christmas they say...right. My cat was covered in dust yesterday. She actually looks quite good in white. ‘I guess we’ll put up a Christmas tree next year’ my husband says gnashing his teeth. My art gets me through the best and worst of times and I haven’t been able to paint. I’m not sure any of you would want to be living with me these days. Believe me; we’ve had to have a great sense of humour to get through this one!

In any case, this morning I found myself thinking about ‘retirement’. It’s a big word isn’t it? What is it supposed to mean in this day and age? To this my answer is - I simply don’t care. After living through this ‘year of living dangerously’ I’m just glad I’m around to bring in the New Year.

I’ll be leaving my work as CEO of the Fraser Hickson Library in Montreal on April 1, 2021 and I guess, given I’ll be 65 in July, this is what is considered retirement. My sister just went through the same process. We’ve talked about it on the phone a lot, savouring many glasses of wine to give us perspective, and we’ve both come to the conclusion that retirement is really graduating from ‘angst’. Don’t get me wrong, we are both very upbeat women, Sylvia and I, but now we owe it ourselves to have fun and RELAX and forget the angst.

I have a plan. I always do because it’s in my nature to be organized. I’m a little OCD but I cherish it. I plan to volunteer to read to children for the project that I built. I plan to paint. I plan to read. I plan to write. I plan to hike and I’m even planning to cook more - anyone who knows me understands that the latter will be quite the undertaking. What is the saying about best-laid plans? Oh yes, ‘The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry’ Robert Burns. Oh well, he was Scottish, I’m Irish so that’s settled.

So this year we must welcome the New Year. After what we’ve all been through, I’ll welcome any new year! I say ‘let the bells ring out and the Angels sing’ because we really don’t have a choice but to move forward and be positive and smart. You heard me! Smart.

Now don’t get me wrong. It’s not always easy to be positive and I don’t begrudge anybody’s complaining, tantrums or doing whatever they need to do to get 2020 out of their systems - as long as they aren’t violent. But please, even if it’s just so I can drink in person with my sister next year, be responsible and keep the faith! There will be a next year that we may enjoy if we are all good girls and boys and other, and behave ourselves. That really in the end is our only alternative. On that note dear readers, I wish you the warmest wishes and much love for the holiday season. Off to dust the cat again!