Gems from year four 2

Favourite Quotations from this Newsletter

August 2017 to October 2018

We always enjoy compiling the Gems of the Year column at the end of each year. It is a treat to read through everyone’s stories again and to choose our favourite tidbits of wisdom, humour, and experience. In choosing these quotations, we look for universal truths about life in retirement.  Our fourth (and a quarter) year had only quarterly newsletters, so fewer articles and, therefore, fewer quotations than in previous years.  That said, we had 18 articles from nine writers.  After much head-scratching, muttering, and arm-wrestling, we finally narrowed our list to 13 gems.  They are listed here for your enjoyment.

If you wish to see who wrote these little gems, or if you’d like to link to the articles, just follow the footnotes.

Enjoy!
Mariella

Top 13 Gems

1. I knew what I wanted to come at, but I wanted to come at those things sideways. Head-on collisions can be cathartic, but they don’t always leave us standing.[1]

2. Working notices may be good for companies, they may even be good for some employees. For me, it was very difficult, stressful, and unnerving.  Twenty-eight years of unstinting service, 50 years old, 5 years from full-pension retirement, 18 months notice.  Now what?[2]

3. Right now, for me, leisure is a bit overrated.[3]

4. I have in fact butted up against some of those big ever-since-I-was-a-kid, this-is-at-the-core-of-my-inner-self dreams, and the experience was neither as daunting nor as unsuccessful as I feared.[4]

5. And who wants to be placed somewhere the dice rolled them, like a game piece in Monopoly?[5]

6. I’ve learned the value of creating a peaceful harbour for myself in the world. There is nothing quite like coming through a life storm safely, to a place of acceptance and contentment.[6]

7. The dreams come easily now.[7]

8. I think my greatest fears are boredom and disability.[8]

9. Selling a house is a little like making love for the first time.[9]

10. It has now been a little over seven months since I sold my practice and semi-retired, and about seven weeks since I fully retired. I have not missed any aspect of work for even a nanosecond.[10]

11. What I’ve been able to figure out so far, since retiring, is to breathe.[11]

12. It was easy for me to retire. I hate rushing in the morning![12]

13. … doing something ‘worthwhile’ has to me the taste of duty and conscience. Not my favourite flavour combination by a long shot…[13]

[1] Mark, Practising retirement – practice is now over

[2] MC, The storm (part 1)

[3] Janis Tomkinson, Time flies when you’re having fun

[4] Mark, Practising retirement – practice is now over

[5] Joan Hoban, You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows

[6] Nancy, The calm seas (part 3)

[7] Joan Hoban, You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows

[8] Maryse Lafreniere, I hate rushing in the morning!

[9] Pat O’Connor, Selling a house is a little like making love for the first time

[10] Phil McCavity, Game on

[11] Joan Hoban, You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows

[12] Maryse Lafreniere, I hate rushing in the morning!

[13] Frank, That’s a good pace, now keep it up for another 30 years…