Going Back To Work: Things I Learned

Today, many of our fellow boomers have different approaches to the idea of "work" after retirement. One of my dearest friends has decided that she wants to stay in the field that she worked in actively for 35 years, but now she wants to use her expertise by working as a free-lance consultant. Others I know retire from their jobs, only to start off in another whole new direction by taking on work that is radically different from their earlier chosen vocations. When I retired, I felt the need to leave behind that particular world of work that had been my life-long passion in order to have an opportunity to pursue what some might call less "serious" pursuits and to develop areas of knowledge that remained uncultivated for many years.

I did go back to work for about three weeks this winter. My motivations for doing this were to help out my former employer and also to make a little extra cash that might be used either to help finance a trip that I otherwise couldn’t afford or to pay for the unexpected costs of an emergency home repair, i.e., digging up a portion of my front yard to replace a sewage pipe that had become clogged with roots and that caused my washing machine to back up and flood my basement. Isn’t there always something or someone waiting to help us spend our money?

My obligation to work was only for about 13 days plus one half day of training and so, even though I had a perfectly dreadful time getting out of bed at 5:30 a.m., I knew that this was only temporary and therefore, I could stand it. However, I was more than a little surprised to find out how totally exhausted I was the first day back to work, working all day, non-stop for seven hours. I guess that tells me something about my new “cushy” lifestyle as a retiree, doesn’t it? I came home that first day and literally crashed. My mind and my feet were numb and I was totally unable to focus on anything more demanding than removing my shoes and my clothes and sliding into my soft, warm, welcoming bed.

Eventually, as the days progressed, I was able to leave work and still accomplish personal tasks such as doing some grocery shopping or going out with friends for dinner. In other words, my body did re-adapt to the work environment. And I did earn about $1,600 that will come in handy in accomplishing those home repairs and / or travel plans that I mentioned earlier.

Beyond the financial rewards, the more interesting aspect of my return to work is the observation I made of less concrete but equally noteworthy positive outcomes. The first thing I can say is that my brief sojourn back in the work world definitely validated my decision to retire in June 2008. I am so much happier since the burdens of work-related responsibilities have been lifted from my shoulders. The freedom afforded by retirement is one of the greatest gifts I have ever earned and something I have frequently spoken about in this blog. Yes, I definitely enjoyed seeing some of my former colleagues and reconnecting with them on a social level. It was comforting to share in the joy of new babies that had been born as well as in the grief of the loss of family members. We were a team in many ways and I liked the feeling of being a part of a team that is working to make a difference. Retirement is a much more solitary lifestyle. However, I knew immediately that I no longer belonged there in an administrative or supervisory capacity. That was simply too taxing and I felt like I’d been there—done that! What I did enjoy most was the one-on-one contact with the students with whom I was working and the satisfaction of helping them to perform academically. This was a very positive validation of my 34-year career in education and a reminder of the good fortune I had to spend my life working in a profession that I loved.


I'm sure that I will go back again next year and put in my three weeks' worth of work (if they still want me); it was satisfying and engaging. But for the remaining 11 1/4 months of the year, I wouldn't trade my retirement for anything.


In closing, if you are considering a return to the work environment, I encourage you to think long and hard about your long term goals and the pro’s and con’s of giving up what you now have as a retiree. Share your thoughts and experiences with me and other blog readers if you desire.

New Friends and Fellow Bloggers

Congratulate me. It appears that I am now a bona fide member of the digital age networking system of communicators. What is the evidence that allows me to declare such an honor, you may ask? That evidence is the new friends I have made via technology, i.e., through my blog. If you have been reading this blog, you know that readers are invited to share their insights and to provide feedback to the topics that I write about. The essence of blogging is two-fold: to provide an outlet for self-expression and an avenue for communication. To accomplish self-expression, just the pure act of purposeful writing is enough. However, to accomplish the goal of communication, there needs to be meaningful two-way communication with another living human being.

It is no surprise to learn that I am not the only retired person out there who has developed a penchant for blogging. However, what is particularly delightful is to find a fellow retiree blogger who shares a very similar perspective on retirement. And, to make the discovery even more delightful is to find a fellow retiree blogger who lives all the way on the other side of the world in Australia. That is one of the exciting outcomes of digital networking. It can and does make the world smaller. Don’t get me wrong. I love all the people who share their comments on my blog (e.g., Swan’s Wing among others). But to find someone from Australia who shares this enthusiasm for the new life that we can create for ourselves in retirement is very rewarding. His blog is titled Paybacktime. Don’t you love that title? This one word captures the way I feel about my retirement. This is the time of life when I get my reward for 34 years of non-stop, hard work and obsessive commitment to my job.

To review, my initial goals for retirement were to participate in activities that challenged me cognitively, physically and socially. I also included the concept of engagement in a cause that is bigger than myself as being necessary to keep me focused and centered. According to the author of Paybacktime, the mantra for successful retirement can be summed up in three words: purpose, relationships and health.

I couldn’t agree more. What he calls a “sense of purpose” could be my own personal mantra for living. Paybacktime also cited research studies which have shown how a sense of purpose can actually lengthen your life—just as participation in physical activity and continued learning have been shown to promote both mental and physical health. I haven’t yet addressed the issue of emotional well-being in my blog, but I refer readers to the latest PBS series on “This Emotional Life” as evidence of the importance of close emotional support as a critical factor in happiness.

So, my thanks to Paybacktime in Australia. http://www.paybacktime.com.au/ And my best wishes to everyone reading. May you follow your dreams; get involved; try something new; reach out to a friend; take a walk; and eat well!

To Stay Or Not To Stay? To Move Or Not To Move?

One of the decisions that retirees eventually face is that of where to live out their golden years. Globally, this "where" can be as varied as staying in the same single family home where you have lived for 25 years; or moving to a retirement community where many of the responsibilities of home ownership can be taken care of in a group setting; or moving to a totally different part of the country, in any sort of community environment. For this posting, the question of "where" will not address congregate living issues—not yet anyway. For today, I’d like to discuss the issue of change of geographic locations.

Starting with my own personal experience, after down-sizing from a large house with a large yard to a smaller house seven years ago, I am now in the process of upgrading bathrooms and kitchen so that I will be happy and comfortable continuing to remain in my current home for a significant number of years. But I can’t rule out the possibility of a major move for the future. My own parents never left their home until it was time to go to an assisted living facility when they were at the ripe old ages of 88 and 91. However, my in-laws decided early on to maintain two residences: a northern one for the summers and a southern one for the winters--eventually giving up their northern home to live in Florida year-round. They used to take the auto train several times a year to come north and visit us. They had good friends and an active social life in both locations.

One of the main reasons people in my part of the country choose to relocate is weather. In my last posting, I talked about the snow blizzard of 2010 that hit the East coast. I have always lived in a climate in which one can fully experience the beauty of the change of seasons. I love the fresh green onset of spring; the plethora of flowers that appear as the seasons change; and the crisp coolnesss as the world changes color in fall. I am accustomed to dealing with snow on a small scale, but the 40 inches we had this year was a challenge. Based on our experience this year, I discovered that one of three things is likely to happen when you awaken to the quiet beauty of 15 inches of newly fallen snow. Either you throw your shoulder out of whack from shoveling the car out of the driveway (like my neighbor); or you pay lots of money to men who are knocking on your door offering to dig you out (like my friend); or if you are as lucky as I happened to be this year, you have a nice neighbor who owns a construction business and who has all the right equipment and who, without being asked, just charges up his machines and removes all your snow for free. I know I can't count on being that lucky forever. My friend in Wisconsin thinks nothing of spending two or more hours at a time shoveling her driveway. But will she be able to fulfill that responsibility when she is 80 years old?

As we get older, the extremes of winter become more and more of a challenge. Thus, regions of the US such as Florida and Arizona have become meccas for folks “of a certain age.” Who wouldn’t choose to live in year-round sunshine if given the option? No sidewalks or driveways to shovel; no icy roads to fight; no need to buy snow tires for the car. Don’t you find the spot in the picture above or the beach picture on the sidebar tempting and relaxing? Compare the snow picture with the beach picture. Where would you rather be in December? Wouldn’t this be a good time in your life to explore a completely different natural environment with lakes and rivers teeming with wildlife; or nature reserves and hiking trails full of exotic species of flora and fauna; or desert climates that feature geological formations and historic sites not accessible anywhere else in the world?

What criteria will you use when / if you are faced with the opportunity to alter your place of residence? After all, you probably stayed where you are now because of your work, right? What’s to stop you from picking up and starting all over in a new location?

Besides the weather, there are other important factors to consider when thinking about such a serious change in your lifestyle.

· What is your financial situation? In this economy, is it plausible to think you can sell your current home and start all over again in the real estate market?

· What about your family? Where does your major support group live? Do you have grandchildren? Do you have parents or siblings? Do you want to live near them? Do they want you to live near them?

· How is your health? Would you be better off in a different climate? Will doctors and hospitals be as accessible and reliable as where you live now?

· Are you happy where you are now? You probably have a strong network of friends and / or family whose emotional support have been helpful to you. Can you really leave behind all those friends and neighbors that have helped you grow and become the person you are?

· Does it make any difference if you are married or single? Is it easier to meet new people with one marital status than the other?

· What are your goals for retirement? Are you a golfer? A painter? A writer? Is one location better than the other for your unique goals and lifestyle preferences? Would year-round access to activities such as golfing or tennis be important to you?

Obviously, there is no one right way to answer any of these questions. Everyone's answers will vary according to individual circumstances. But the questions are worthy of consideration. According to current figures on average lifespans, you most likely have two or three more decades of living ahead of you. Don't you want to make the best of those years? Moving can be your own wonderful personalized "stimulus package" for change and new opportunities for learning and growth. But it also has the potential for serious financial and emotional consequences if not well thought out.

I hope that readers of this blog will respond and help “unpack” this question. By sharing your own personal experiences, you will be helping others and providing insights far broader and deeper than my own points of view. Phyllis, Mary, Lajuana and Bob, Barry—I hope you will respond and help out on this question.

Friends and Neighbors and Snow

There are truly generous people in this world. I know this from personal experience. If you know about the blizzard of February 2010, then you know that the picture chosen for this posting is real. You might be thinking right now –gee I’m glad I moved south and don’t have to deal with that kind of mess anymore. (For more pictures and reminders of why you moved away from snow country, check out the pictures on the right side of the blog.)

But this posting is not about snow. It’s about the generosity and genuine helpfulness of people when times get tough. It’s about the friends who stopped by to see me after my dad died and brought me gingerbread tea and then sat with me, sharing in the tea and companionship. That was fellowship in the truest sense of the word. It’s about the colleagues who make a generous donation to cancer research after your sister has died—a donation in honor of your love for your sister, but also an expression of love for you because they love you and want to help ease your suffering. It’s about the pregnant niece who walks in the Susan B. Comen walk to help raise funds for the same woman, her aunt, who later died from the disease. It’s about sharing some of your own personal wealth to buy a goat for a poor family in Guatemala or to make a donation to the local food bank or to help the thousands of homeless families in Haiti. And it’s about the neighbor who plows your driveway—not because you asked, but just because he had the equipment and wanted to be helpful.

I don’t know what I did to deserve such kindness on the part of my neighbor. Maybe he’s just happy that I’m not a grumpy neighbor. Maybe he’s happy that I take care of my property and that I mind my own business. But deep down I do believe the old adage that “what comes around goes around.” Yes, sometimes those who live a life of good purpose and love toward their fellow man get a raw deal--case in point, my sister-in-law who never hurt a fly but who suffered terribly from the fatal cancer that destroyed her body. How do we explain these situations? We can’t. We accept the unexplainable. We have faith that there is a higher purpose and that we are not always in charge of our lives. There is a higher power at work. And in the meantime, we just go about our lives, doing the best we can, and trying to observe the Golden Rule—“Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.” No matter what your religious affiliation, few can argue with this credo.

So, I thank my neighbor. I thank my friends who sat with me. I thank my sisters, my brother, my children and friends who accept me for who I am and who help me to be the best person that I can be. I thank everyone who has in some unique way given of themselves to make someone else’s life better.

If you have a story to tell about an act of kindness that you observed or that you were a part of, write it down and share it with others. And say a little prayer of gratitude.

Getting Fit Follow-Up

It’s been a few weeks since I first introduced my fitness plan and I thought I should demonstrate some accountability to my readers and to myself and talk about what progress I have made so far. (No, that's not me in the picture. I wish it were!)

First of all, since January 1, I have been much more faithful about going to the gym. My goal is three times a week but I don’t always make my goal. Today I walked 2 miles on the treadmill in about 32 minutes. I had to work back up to this pace because it had been so long since I did any brisk walking. At my current pace walking about 3.8 miles per hour, I burned 170 calories in that 32 minute span of time. I also use the muscle strengthening machines each time I go to the Y. In about 20 minutes, I can hit 8 machines—biceps, triceps, abdomen, lower back, shoulders, thighs, etc. This puts my total time at the Y at just under one hour.

For those of you who are a bit timid about going to the gym, here are a few side comments. At my local YMCA, the best time to go to use the exercise equipment, i.e., the time when the gym is the least busy, is around the lunch hour on a week-day. There are people at every level of fitness who are working on any number of fitness goals. There is always a trainer present who can answer any questions you have. Despite what I used to imagine, no one is really looking at me when I am doing my exercises. I used to feel a little self-conscious, but I got over it.

So, what do I get for my efforts? Have I lost tons of weight and am I now planning on entering a body-building contest? That is hardly the point. I think I’ve dropped one pound. But, more importantly, my energy level is markedly higher and my muscles are definitely more toned than they were. I know that I am sleeping better at night.

The most important criteria for judging the ultimate value of the exercise and food monitoring strategy that I have begun is to ask myself “How do I feel?” For me, the answer is a definite “I feel good!” I fell better physically and I feel better about myself because I am sticking to my goals.

Just to recap—I’m a 63-year old woman who has never been a particularly athletic type of person. I just want to feel good and look my best. If I can do it, so can you. Go back and revisit the previous post which talked about the prevention of Alzheimer’s and the book by John Ratey. My favorite quote from John Ratey is the following: "Going out for a run is like a little Prozac and Ritalin. We feel more focused, calm and motivated afterward. The more activity you are doing, the less cognitive decline."

Getting Fit (part 2)

Yesterday I made the greatest discovery. Recently I purchased an Iphone--which has much more information than I really need. My daughter-in-law very nicely explained to me the different "apps" that are free. I found one for free NPR podcasts (to listen to while I am on the treadmill at the Y) and another that will help me locate restaurants in any town I might visit in the US (Urbanspoon.) Today I went surfing to see if there was an application to help me track my intake of food each day. And voila! There it was. It is a website that will supposedly sync with my computer. The name of the site is http://www.myfitnesspal.com/.

Several years ago, when I first started noticing the pounds (and inches) creeping up on me (around the age of 48 I think), I started a log of all the foods I ate. Then, I took it one step further and bought several books which gave the number of calories and fat grams in just about any food that I could possibly ingest. It was a lot of trouble at first but it was amazing how just having to write down everything I ate or drank made me so much more aware of how much food I was consuming every day. And then when I started counting up the fat grams, I suddenly became very smart about certain foods that just ooze with butter and fats. One of the foods that I have not touched since I started my own personal campaign against fats is croissants. Never, ever order a sandwich that is on a croissant. Instead, order whole wheat bread. You lose the fat and you gain the fiber. I call that a win-win situation.

This new way of tracking calories will be so much easier. All I have to do is type in, for example, Ocean Spray Cranberry-Apple Juice or 2% fat milk. The computer looks it up and tells me how many calories, carbs, and fat grams there are in whatever amount of juice or milk I drank that day. I mean, this is going to be so easy. Finally an "app" that is totally beneficial to me. You can also keep track of how much exercise you do every day. The reason why it will be helpful to have access to this information on my Iphone is for occasions when I am dining out and need some quick information to help me make my menu selections. (How's that for justifying the purchase?) Typing in all that food information is a little tedious on the smaller Iphone, so I'll probably do that part of the recond-keeping from home on my PC.

So, now that we know that exercise is good for us, not only physically but mentally, and now that we have a way to help us track our consumption of food and to increase our awareness of just what we are eating, we have begun to make strides in the never-ending campaign for better physical health and wellness. Why don't you try it with me! Or share with me your success stories and strategies for staying fit.

Again, the site is http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

Resolved: To Improve a Poor Track Record

New Year’s Greetings to all readers of this blog.

Today, January 10, 2010, I went back to the gym after an absence of four months. Does this story sound familiar? YMCA membership for ten years: Average actual use of YMCA-- approximately ten hours per year. In other words, some years, I’m a real go-getter and I go multiple times a week; I use the treadmill; the weight machines; take an aerobics class. Then there are the years where I don’t step foot inside the gym. That’s my “track record” with formal physical exercise. If I include those other activities in life which work off calories and build body muscle, such as gardening, vacuuming, or walking my dog, my score would improve somewhat but nothing to put me in the boot camp category. My motivation to exercise comes and goes, according to what else is going on in my life.

The journals are full of articles about how we can retain our cognitive functions, most recently in Time magazine, Jan 18, 2010, “Workouts For Your Brain,” by Bonnie Rochman. I’ve been doing the cross-word puzzles for about ten years. My friends are doing their daily Sudokus. I know folks who are studying a foreign language. Well, the data tell us that in addition to activities like those I just mentioned, two of the most important things one should be doing to remain at top cognitive functioning are to engage in physical activity and to remain socially active.

Isn’t that a nice prescription for mental and physical wellness? Take a walk every day and go out with your friends at least three times a week. How hard is that?

According to the website for Alzheimer’s Prevention, “exercise strengthens the pumping force of your heart, increases blood flow to your brain, increases exercise tolerance, reduces body weight, lowers blood pressure, reduces bad cholesterol (both LDL and total), increases good cholesterol (HDL), and increases insulin sensitivity, all of which enhance health and reduce the risk for diseases that can affect brain functioning, such as cardiovascular conditions.” http://alzheimers.about.com/od/prevention/f/physexercise.htm

John Ratey, MD., author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, tells us that exercise stimulates our gray matter to produce “Miracle-Gro for the brain.” If ever I needed to find an excuse for exercising—this is the best one yet. If research shows that people who exercise regularly are less likely to fall victim to dementia and Alzheimers Disease, what more can anyone say to encourage you and me to get out there and walk on the treadmill, or walk the neighborhood with friends, or lift those free weights that have been sitting idle for two years? Just 30 minutes a day is all it takes. After watching the movie Iris last night about Iris Murdoch’s struggle with Alzheimer’s, I know that I would sure like to try some preventive tactics.

One more quote from John Ratey: "Going out for a run is like a little Prozac and Ritalin. We feel more focused, calm and motivated afterward. The more activity you are doing, the less cognitive decline." Quoted by Simon Usborne on John Ratey website, article “Third Age: Health and Wellness.” http://johnratey.typepad.com/blog/2008/04/third-age-healt.html