Use your time to try something new

By Ruth Temple Taul

For the Salisbury Post

When retiring always remember, you have just retired from work, not from life.After working until I was 78, I felt a little lost, even a little guilty that I wasn't in my routine of going to work every day. Fortunately, when my daughter and I moved to Salisbury, we bought a house that needed yardwork badly. Believing that my little patch of ground was part of God's footstool, I spent the first year making it beautiful. Hint number one, take up gardening!

Since a man's work has consumed his time for most of his life, it is difficult for him when he retires. One popular pastime is following the wife from room to room critiquing her housekeeping abilities. A word to the wise, that has been tried and it hasn't worked yet. Besides, it brings out traits in your wife that could prove to be dangerous!

Fire the lawn service and take over their job. Have an afternoon or two and play cards. Move the game from one house to the other. This gives all the wives a break. Build birdhouses to give as presents since your income has been reduced. You might even have a contest among your cronies for the best, the most beautiful, or even the most ugly birdhouse.

It was after I retired that I found I could write. At 80 years old, I sat down, wrote a sentence or two and my story telling floodgates opened wide! Two books have been published and five others are in the works. I find each book to be more exciting than the last! Tap into the hidden talents you have, you may be entering the most exciting time of your life.

Wishing you a happy retirement.