57 minutes and counting

I have not panicked yet.  It has been 57 minutes since I officially retired.  Sounds so very ominous. Conjures up pictures in my mind of little blue haired ladies with walkers swapping gossip in the retirement home.  But I know that is not so.  At least I hope not.

I do have a heritage of retirees to follow.  My grandparents set up the first school district in Greeley County Kansas, worked hard all their lives, lost everything they owned twice, and yet, at 60 set off on a new adventure to build a farm.  They did so, and did it fabulously, and that was the soil I sprang out of.  Not the actual soil, the soil of my heritage.  My father, who retired at 62, became more busy, with a purpose, after he retired, just teaching the word of God to every soul he could find. He is in a nursing home now, at 88, and still grabbing people by the ear and saying, "listen to me." 

Before them, there were the great grandparents who traveled cross country, fought in the civil war, and yet came to Kansas to build a farm and a home.  I could keep going on, traversing the generations, but that list would be endless.

It appears that we Linns' don't find something to really sink our teeth into until our teeth are ready to fall out. So since I am on the fairly youngish side of retirement, perhaps there is something beside my art work and my writing that I will find to put myself to good use.

But today, its that first day of retirement.  I am jittery still, perhaps a little excited, maybe a little lost.  I am sure God will provide me with tasks and a map to do whatever it is He has set before me.   
As my grandfather used to say, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do."  I used to think that was in reference to my bike tires, or the dress I so longed to throw in the trash, but when I look back, I can see that was exactly what he did with himself, right up to the very last minute.  I think I still may have some wear in me, before I hit the used up part.  Then I will just have to make do.

Copyright © 2010 by Susan Linn-Gomez. All Rights Reserved.