"It is a time of quiet joy, the sunny morning. When the glittery dew is on the mallow weeds, each leaf holds a jewel which is beautiful if not valuable. This is no time for hurry or for bustle. Thoughts are slow and deep and golden in the morning.” - John Steinbeck from "Tortilla Flat”

This morning, I find myself thinking of what really matters and how I will have a different opportunity to give my time to those people and things that matter to me during my retirement. During my working life, I’ve spent almost 50% of my waking hours working, or commuting to work, and these hours have been in service of what matters most because they have allowed me to do my part to support our family. I’m grateful for the career I’ve had, and the opportunities it has given us to live the life we do here at home, to travel to see family and the world around us, and to form and honor lasting friendships. I’m also grateful that my career at the university has allowed me to earn the retirement benefits that will soon let me focus more time on my loved ones and the activities that are most meaningful to me.

This week, I had an opportunity to attend a time management workshop with Chad Cooper (http://www.chadecooper.com/) that has given me some new things to think about. I’ve been to a number of sessions on this topic and I’ve become familiar with several tools and techniques to help make wise use of time. Mr. Cooper’s comments presented this challenge to me in a different light. Instead of starting with the various tasks and priorities that make a claim on my time, his approach calls us to begin by considering our values, who we want to be, and those people and experiences that are most meaningful in our lives. I look forward to reading his new book, “Time Isn’t the Problem, You Are” and to seeing how I might benefit from applying this approach as I plan for how I will spend my time in retirement.

In retirement, I look forward to having even greater freedom to make choices driven by my values and true calling in life. While I acknowledge that I’ve always had this freedom, I also see that my awareness of how my choices influence the value I can provide, and receive, from living has developed as I have gained life experience. At the same time, the reduced need to devote so many hours to earning a living will provide me a degree of freedom that is different from anything I’ve experienced since I left school and began working full time almost 40 years ago.

My greatest growth has always come in relationship with others and most especially through my relationships with my loved ones. I know that I will choose to spend more time both with them and in activities that allow me to act on my love for them. Traveling together and sharing the wonders of the world, and the joy of seeing their reaction to these wonders, will definitely be a priority for me. I also look forward to using my creativity, in the wood shop, the kitchen, and with words and music to find new ways to delight them.

I’ve also found that I grow and flourish through time for introspection and reflection. I feel a great desire to be the best version of myself that I can be. Taking time to consider what I feel, think, and believe, and how honestly I am acting on my values, is an important part of this process. I welcome the opportunity to choose a slower pace of life at times in retirement. One that allows more quiet time to reflect before I return with new energy to act on the love that provides the greatest meaning to my life.

I look forward to choosing more time for meditation, exercise, and time in nature. In spiritual practice, and in wilderness I find opportunities for a special kind of silence that clears and feeds my mind, and that refreshes and nourishes my soul. In consistent healthy activity, I find a wellspring of vitality that lets me act with greater freedom, engagement, and flexibility as I enjoy the adventure of living. In this busy career chapter of my life, I haven’t always chosen time for these practices that expand my capacity for living. I retirement, I have the opportunity to choose differently.

How I look forward to more time to write and sing and share my music! Some of my earliest memories are of music and song and I find the act of singing brings me close to so many moments of remembered joy. From the earliest memories of hearing my mother singing, and so many shared moments with loved ones when our voices have been raised in song together, to wonderful memories of making music with friends, and the delight of singing for children throughout my life. My future holds the promise of many new opportunities to share joy, togetherness, and love through music. Opportunities to open a window to my thoughts and feelings through new songs of my own. Opportunities to open a door to welcome my loved ones closer through these songs of my heart, and to have them come in, sit close to me, and sing.

There will be more time to give back to our community and there are so many options open to me for this giving! Today I am thinking of my beloved Sue’s 30 years with the Yosemite Environmental Living Program as of this spring, and of how much I admire her passion, wisdom, and dedication to that work. Especially in these past 15 years, when she left the classroom and volunteered to coordinate that program for the National Park Service, she has been an amazing role model to me for what it means to give back. I wonder how I will choose to give? I’m pretty sure time volunteering in our national parks will be one of those choices, and I can see myself reading and singing for children.

I imagine that retirement will also be a time to me try new things. By definition, I have no idea where my adventures in retirement might take me and this is an exciting notion for me. When I have more freedom to spend time in new ways, what new possibilities will open up for me? Sometimes, lately, it feels as though the things I truly want to do with my life and time are calling me more urgently. I sometimes wonder if I can last another 13 months before I drive home from the office for the last time! I imagine I’ll make it but I am beginning to feel the emotional energy building in me that could make that exit from my career into IT a shining entrance into something new and wonderful.

I know that with the freedom to choose new ways to spend my time, and my life, comes a new responsibility. I’m sure I will need time to learn how to make the best choices in this new chapter of my life. My wife, and the other loved ones and trusted advisors I am talking with about retirement, assure me that this will be an important challenge. I will make good choices, and some missteps. I will make adjustments and give myself permission to try things and to choose what to keep and what to let go. I feel the excitement growing within me and I believe I will be ready when the day comes to turn this page.

The photo at the top of my essay today is one we took while hiking the Marsh Trail at Rondeau Provincial Park in Ontario with dear friends on August 1, 2012. I believe these are Swamp-Rose Mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos).