For November of last year, my theme was Invisibility. I also tend to discuss little bits about aging from time to time. I’m edging into acquaintance with aging - just barely though and really don’t intend to give into the process!
Self doubt and invisibility seem to wander close to each other from time to time. Just a thought. As we leave the world of what we’ve often called ‘the daily grind', some also seem to leave their confidence behind, hanging it on the hook behind the staff room door on their way off and away. So far for me, retirement is still just a topic of discussion and very fortunately so.
For those of us with careers and friendships limited to colleagues and conferences, stepping out on the sidewalks and in the coffeeshops without the mantle of our careers can be awkward, if not a bit lonely. The danger is isolation within neighbourhoods, towns, or cities. It can be so very easy to begin to doubt ourselves in this new role of semi retired or retired, trying to find our place without guidance from policies or protocols.
But for those of us that have gathered a life around us with friends and activities that have little or nothing to do with the workaday world, the step into the outside world is not quite so awkward. Still there is a different cloak of confidence that must be tailored and worn for this new world. One that settles around our shoulders sheltering us from the self doubt of aging as we begin to mix with a wonderful variety with men and women while the clock still turns within each open day.
“Don’t simply retire from something; have something to retire to.”
~ Harry Emerson Fosdick
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