A Retirement Blog by Caree Risover

  It is 8 years ago today that I left my office desk and took my first steps into retirement.  Fittingly, this afternoon I was reminded of some of the associated emotions whilst chatting to our next door neighbour who retired too a few weeks ago. Whilst he's clearly throwing himself into all those tasks that you let slip whilst you are busy working down to your final day, he also divulged that he is experiencing those horrendous nightmares where you wake up, palms sweating, realising that you were imagining yourself back in the workplace. At least I was able to reassure him that, 8 years on, not only would I be incapable of doing the job that kept me occupied and fulfilled for so long, but also I honestly would be unable to recall what used to be required of me, at least not sufficient to dream about it. Who would have thought it would be possible to get to that stage, but when life is filled in other ways, memories of the task of earning a living by pursuing a career do actually

  I've been feeling somewhat overwhelmed for the last couple of weeks. I'm not sure if I've been overdoing everything or if the Covid Lockdown pace of life means I can never juggle all those balls in the air again. I even logged in to a live online lecture in an effort to unravel the mystery of  Embracing Your Limits . Apparently it's all about living in the moment, accepting our limitations and just enjoying that ‘we are’ without pushing ourselves unduly. Trouble is I go all out horizontal and there's still a pile of chores and administrative tasks to be completed when I return to reality, not to mention a blog entry or two to be written.  Perhaps the secret is to zone out permanently forgetting the present as well as the past and future, living in some kind of alternative reality. However, when retirement is already that alternate existence, it seems a bit extreme to be looking for another one. There again I'm not sure that anybody has said there's a limit