A Second Childhood?

I’m curious. Authors and writing educators say ‘Write what you know.’ Thus my curiosity. I am often asked the question: ‘how do you like retirement?’ Or how’s retirement going? Probably daily I hear some version of these questions. Sometimes I have an answer. Sometimes I have a faint distant headache from trying to think of an answer. Because I don’t know retirement. I only know that I’ve retired from being employed as a nurse. I’ve let go of my nursing registration. My question is: who was I before I was a nurse. Before I was married. Before I was raising my two sons. In essence: Before. I only remember that person as a child, an adolescent… and then life changed, 

Thus my curiosity, because I haven’t retired from life. Or from being me. I could say that I retired from being me just after high school, giving my self over to the world of adulthood, and all that came with it. So am I now in a second childhood? Not one of senility or being in my dotage. But having the ability to play and learn. To read interesting books. To explore. These things and more along with the life experience of an adult. There are more things to play at ~ going to plays, movies and musical events of my choosing and on my own should I decide to. To have a library and book stores within walking distance. To wander through the city and the park to find out what is there for me to enjoy. To learn. To learn my style of home decor after years of just putting things together. What time should I set the bread to rise.

So how is retirement going? To-day is a good day with my unlimited imagination only reined in by the oven timer going off ~ Bread’s done! By the phone ringing and a good chat with my sister. By going out this afternoon to slip into the sparkling pool for fun and exercise. In between all of these things, it is doing nothing, or paying bills, exploring through old pictures and journals. In short, I have a choice between retiring from life or retiring into a very interesting life. Even shorter: I’m curious.

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own 

reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates 

the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality. It is 

enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day.”

~ Albert Einstein, “Old Man’s Advice to Youth: ‘Never Lose a Holy Curiosity.’” (LIFE Magazine (2May1955) p.64