Freedom

I’ve been thinking about freedom a lot this past week. My own personal freedom that is. Retirement has given me an incredible freedom that I can’t recall ever having before.  It all just kind of came to me in a flash last week when I was driving back from Home Depot.

It was early last Tuesday morning and I had decided I was going to get rolling on a home project that day. I mean I had decided the night before that I was going to do it and 8 AM on a Tuesday I had gone to Nanaimo to pick up the bits I needed and was heading home for the day. It was a nice sunny morning, I didn’t have to race anywhere and I just enjoyed the trip.

When I got home I started and finished things in a couple of hours then decided to make an apple crisp. Then I had lunch.  After lunch I started to pull together parts for my router sled project and did a bit of weeding in the garden and picked plums and by the time 4:30 rolled around it was time for a coffee. A good day that got some things accomplished but had no agenda and was relaxing. That’s freedom.

I mean sure I have appointments and things that need to be done, but for the most part my life is no longer measured by schedule. I don’t have to start at 7 and finish at 3 and I don’t have to get all my home jobs done between Friday and Monday.

I can decide in the morning what I’m doing for the day and can change plans at a moments notice. I can give a friend a hand or go for a bike ride or Heather and I can do a road trip somewhere. I can go out and start a project after dinner and work until midnight. And maybe I don’t actually consider myself retired either.  I’ve just widened my focus. I’ve still got lots to do but it’s now on my terms. And I like it.

 

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