One of the benefits of retirement is that if you choose to you
can sleep in. Most days there is no reason to set an alarm or get up early,
whatever that means to you. It’s a nice perk I guess but as a morning person I
find myself climbing out of bed before it’s daylight. The deciding factor for
me goes like this, lay in bed or drink coffee? Coffee wins out every time. It
may have something to do with the fact that my mother never, and I mean never,
allowed us to sleep late. She had no grace for what she called, “laying up in
the bed all day” or unmade beds past daylight. Whatever the reason I’m a
morning person and retirement hasn’t changed that.
It’s true that I’m usually in my comfy chair with
coffee in hand before sunrise but in another way, I feel like I’ve been
sleeping for a very long time. Remember the story of Rip Van Winkle? He fell
asleep in the mountains and woke up 20 years later. Now that’s a nap for you! I
told a friend just yesterday that I feel like I’m waking up after 2 years. It’s
been two years since my husband of thirty-six years passed away and, in a way,
it feels like I’ve been sleep walking all this time. Just recently it seems my
eyes opened, I yawned really big, looked around and thought where have I been
and what have I been doing? Wow, what a wakeup call.
Sometimes fairy tales come true, but this has been no
Sleeping Beauty story. I didn’t fall asleep to be awakened by my handsome
prince. No, my handsome prince went away forever, and I cried myself to sleep
and slept for a very long time. You can’t sleep forever though, not even when
you are retired. Eventually you wake up. It may be to a new reality, like retirement,
but it’s your life and it’s real and as in all life it can be really good.
Your story may not be the same as mine but after reading
many blogs and articles about retirement there seems to be a sort of naptime in
the beginning for everyone. To me that makes perfect sense. We take naps because
we are tired. Of course, we are tired. Some of us have been working almost all
of our lives. Naps refresh our energy. Some of us need a good power nap because
we’ve used up just about all the power we had. A nice nap can clear our minds,
refresh our souls and help us see things in a totally new perspective. Naps are
good and much needed and just may be the first thing we need to do after we
retire.
Your naptime may last a month, several months or a year.
Eventually the wakeup call will come. I’m awake now. What do I want to do? Notice
I didn’t say what should I do, what do I need to do, what do I have to do but
what do I WANT to do! I keep hearing the words to a recent popular song, tell
me what you want, what you really, really want. Truth is I’m not sure of the
answer but I’m excited to find out. One thing is true, my retirement is
limitless!
