Emerging from ‘The Dark Ages’

…and into The Age of Enlightenment…

We are both recently retired, which allows us to do things like attend interesting seminars during the week – time when we would have been working.  So on the day of one such seminar, we woke early, got ready with things like showers, breakfast and the obligatory feeding and walking the dog.  After all, we would be gone for the whole day.

Something was terribly wrong, though, as I returned from the dog walk.  It was dark outside.

Since retirement, we rarely get out of bed while it is still dark.  Awakening with the sun isn’t just a good idea – it’s the natural thing to do.  It just feels right.

When working, though, we routinely got up in the dark, prepared for work in the dark, had breakfast and fixed bag lunches in the dark, planned the day’s activities in the dark, and even left the house in the dark.  And since we live in the Northwest where winter days are short, we sometimes returned home in the dark.

We have come to refer to our former working lives as “The Dark Ages.”  You know, the lives that included finding out by mid-morning that you had on one black sock and one blue sock.  That your earrings, though similar, definitely do not match.  Or that your lunch bag has your name on it, but what’s inside isn’t yours.  Those kind of “Dark Ages.”

Now retired, we are in the Age of Enlightenment, both figuratively and literally.  We make our own schedules, plan without worrying about weekly staff meetings, get dressed without worrying whether we are dressed appropriately for working in a professional environment, and not worry about what I need to accomplish after work.  And we get up when it feels right to get up.  That’s after the sun gets up – not before!

There are lots of good things about being retired.  One of the most important is discovering life without having to try.  The “Dark Ages” have been replaced by the “Age of Enlightenment” and as Martha would say, “That’s a good thing!”

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