Trade Offs By Dr. Juan Harrison
Trade Offs
She dropped off some chicken and dumplings at her dads on the way to the country to pick up the granddaughter for a girl’s day out. After straightening up the house, washing a couple of dishes and loading the washer, I flopped back on the bedroom couch and glanced at the ever present yellow legal pads lying about waiting for me to commit some thoughts to paper.
I think about those crazy hectic times of child rearing. Now the house is quiet as I stare at a day of uncommitted time and think what a luxury it is. I remind myself and others to cherish those momentary quiet pauses in our lives, for we know they don’t come along too often. We dreamed of them, then one day they finally appeared, days of uncommitted time.
When I retired, I happily left the constant battle of emails on my computer in my empty office. I tossed the calendar filled with meetings and appointments into the trash can, cleaned out my files, and boxed up the keepsakes and special mementos on the wall. Much like many of you, I found myself looking face-to-face at a scenario I knew I’d experience if I lived that long. The reality of closing the office door for the last time felt strongly eerie. Almost as in a dream it hardly seemed possible that all the years had flown by as I finally faced the reality that a whole new unscheduled world was finally saying “come on in.”
The beauty of retirement with uncommitted days replacing a lifetime of constant meetings and appointments is a thing of beauty. Uncommitted time. Yet too soon I learned that those days may not last that long. Before you know it, your days are often so full again you understand the frequently repeated phrase from retirees that they wondered how they got everything done during the working years.
The beauty and the joy of this phase of our lives has been the flexibility and freedom to move this around and help arrange our days to fit our schedules. Then, too soon we find doctor appointments and family commitments start pulling and tugging on our time bank and reducing our bankroll. Time, precious time. Hopefully the joy of retirement with more time to see and be with our grands and great grands can offset those days of rising inflation and shrinking income. Life is about trade offs.
By Dr. Juan Harrison
