The Third Age

 

I keep meeting people who don't know what to do with themselves in retirement. After more than three years my doing nothing or very little has suited me, but I realize that would not suit others. Part of the problem is that we identify ourselves with the work we do. Joan Chittister in her book called The Gift of Years:Growing Old Gracefully says, "Even to use the word 'retired' makes employment the center and fulcrum of life." What are we when we are not what we used to do?
She says that the French call the time after retirement "The Third Age", a helpful way to think of it. Just another way of being. If we haven't begun already, it's a time to find meaning in life by being rather than doing. By being in relationship with others and with God.