Time Around Tables

One of the things I’ve looked most forward to in retirement is an unhurried pace to be able to enjoy time together with family and friends with a sense of full presence and my mind not on a million other things I’ve got to get done. Since I have retired, that has happened more and more. I’m not checking the time as much. One day I even had to think about what day it was. That’s a nice feeling. It’s got me thinking about all those dementia checks they give older people by asking them what year it is. There might be better questions for that, since I think that one is a little biased against retirees. We don’t care, and we don’t want to keep up with those minor details anymore.

In the past week alone, we’ve met family members for meals and spent time around tables catching up on life and enjoying food and fellowship. We picked up a grandson and took him to Longhorn Steakhouse to talk golf, life happenings, and what he’s reading in school – The Crucible, and how the classic witch-hunt still happens. We have celebrated a birthday with my stepson two counties northwest of us and met my aunt and uncle an hour north of us for lunch because they’ve been hoping to see our RV and see how we set it up. We met my stepson at Il Porto Di Venezia in Senoia (where The Walking Dead was filmed) and found a parking lot with both a Panera and a Barnes and Noble (places to fill two appetites AND space to demonstrate setup of the RV for dry camping) to meet my aunt and uncle.

And besides all the time around tables with those we love, retirement offers the blessed gift of time to browse and pick the books I want to read next. I’ll be meeting Tayari Jones next month when she comes to a University of Georgia campus near me to talk about her latest book, Kin.

Yes, the unhurried pace is the best thing about retirement. Someone told me it would be sleep, but for me it’s the quality of the time awake that I get to enjoy in this chapter.

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