My Third Act Page 1

I am no longer in the full time work force.  In spite of many well meaning friends and people who knew me in my former job asking after me and my retirement, I have decided to take the advice of a woman I know who rejected the whole "retired" moniker.  She corrects people who call her a retired teacher - she refers to teaching as the work she used to do (for 25 years) and now she is doing something new, going way out on a limb and doing her dream of owning her own little boutique.  Sometimes it makes money, sometimes her "retirement" check has to pay the bills, but she is younger in mind and spirit for having had the courage to try. I never really thought of retiring, certainly not of watching daytime TV or sleeping til noon or learning to play bridge to pass the time.  I have always been productive and I have always been inspired by people who have remained productive for however many days they are given in this world.  I want to be one of those people and I have been watching ACT III unfold for the past  months in an amazing variety of ways and every day I look forward to what is coming next.  I miss my paycheck, I miss lots of nice people my former job put me in touch with, and I miss the work we did that added a lot to the community where I live, but I have the luxury for the first time in my six decades of life to slow down, talk to my friends, read books, write, cook, hang out with family, goto church almost every day, exercise almost every day, tutor, feed families that have lost loved ones, write notes to say thank you (real notes/not e-mails), read the newspaper and walk on the beach.  I can't be smug and tell myself I earned this time - nobody earns time, it's a gift, and besides my still employed husband makes my Act III possible.  I want to witness to my grown up children that life in all its stages is great and grand and full of possibilities and to grow stronger knowing that losses are coming and getting closer all the time.  I remind myself that in the best plays ever written the excitement happens in Act III and I can't wait to see what happens next.