"What are your plans for retirement?"

 retirement

people ask me:

"What are your plans for retirement?"

almost as if they expect me to be

called to a different type of job,

a piece of me I've neglected

and that will soon find its time,

that's not who I am,

while teaching  full time

I've still been able to write:

creating wholes of words to hold experience, thoughts, feelings,

finishing and publishing two books,

plus recording one on Audible,

I've still been able to photograph:

capturing and expressing people, places, animals,

often in calendars to be shared,

I've still been able to travel:

the Smokies, Wyoming, Hawaii, New Zealand, Iceland,

redwoods, grandchildren,

though, with retirement from a school calendar,

I hope for places and times to open up even more for me,

I've still been able to share time with a glorious partner,

there are many aspects of myself I will keep pursuing, I hope:

gardening, reading, recording history, whether in video or in artifact,

so, in retirement, I hope for even better expression 

of my writing, my photography, my travel,

my relationships: with partner and with the world,

a lot of what I feel now is a readiness to lay down

the all-consuming pressure of being there every day for my kids,

of seeing and acting upon the fullness of who they are

within a reality that is not easily handled by them,

in the middle of the night, my anxieties can surface

and sometimes I elder myself:

"You can't fix everything. . .

just be who you are. . .

just do what you can."

I often then caution: "Love yourself as you love others."

as a teacher, I am gifted with thinking of myself

as also the student, the "other,"

maybe in retirement I will minister to myself

as well I have have ministered to all my other "selves."

by Henry H. Walker

February 10, ‘24