Saturday, July 15, 2017

The first day of the rest of my life



This was a saying from the 60s and 70s.  'Today is the first day of the rest of your life.'  It meant that you can start afresh every day.  So what if hitherto your life hasn't been a success?  No matter: you can begin again.  So what if you had a miserable childhood?  The rest of your life awaits you.  You might have better luck in future.

Well, today is the first day of my retirement.  My head is filled with plans of things to do, things that I stopped doing while I was working because it wasn't possible to concentrate on doing my job properly and also do all the other things that interest me.  I often think about the characters in and the plot and dialogue of the story I'm working on.  When I was at my job, I had to think hard about the job, thinking about the state of markets and what would happen to them.  I didn't have the time or the energy to also think about writing.

But there were other things I used to do too, when I had more energy.  I played the clarinet and saxophone, I exercised, I was full of bounce and oomph, I was thin.  So I will be getting back into all these things.  The days of stress, worrying myself sick about investment returns and getting markets right, are over.  And I feel wonderful!

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