Retirement Lessons

Since I have retired, I have been asked innumerable times how my life has changed. Searching for an honest and meaningful answer, I went out on solo cross-country travel for several months and meditated non-stop while I was enjoying my cheap wines and whiskeys. Finally, I found my answer. 

I discovered, since retirement, my sense of humor has suddenly disappeared. And I am sure most of you might have noticed it too. That was a discovery but I had to go deeper and do a root cause analysis. After meditating several more days with cheap wine and whiskey, here is the revelation I had…

1. While I worked, my body never spoke to me. But as soon as I retired, my body started talking back to me. I found several new noise-making body parts that grew after retirement. 
2. Most of my body parts are alcoholic, they behave like drunk people; they smell bad and fall all over the place for no reason. 
3. Mind has developed its own mind, a new one. It does whatever it feels like doing. The new mind thinks it is a 16year old young boy who can go on a mountain hike in the middle of a hot day without anyone on this earth knowing where I am going and without any earthly communication.  
4. At the social level, people have started treating me like these are my last few days on this earth. Whenever they meet they treat me like they have come to pay their last respect.
5. In my professional circle, all those who thought I possessed many skills, high level of wisdom and a ton of experience, now use my name in vain, as a scapegoat for every bad decision and everything that’s wrong. 
6. A year later, my fantasies for domestic and international travel seem so overrated. After travelling for almost a year, I have fallen in the lowest level of taxpayers category i.e. income below poverty level. It is traumatizing to fill zero in my annual income field in forms.
7. I discovered, most people are busy and not available for 11 am yoga class or 3 pm to 6 pm happy hour on weekdays.
8. I also learned I don’t need many things in life, just a drivable car, a bank account, 1 suitcase of clothes and a few hundred close friends and family. I have learned the value of having a close group of friends and family around to save myself from depression. Without them, life is incomplete and meaningless. 
9. Gautam Buddha discovered that life is filled with sorrow and miseries. I discovered life is filled with love and happiness, it’s all about our perspective and attitude.