My Retirement Years

Feb 28, 2022

Years ago, when I was longing for retirement, I wrote about this distant dream:

My earnest ambition is to finish my “autobiography” (Book one - Life with Peace Corps). Once I accomplish, I shall retire to a small cabin in the woods, or a quiet canyon in the Utah desert.  That little cabin will have minimum necessitates, but it must face East to capture all the morning sun.  It must be surrounded by a nature garden with aspen, cottonwood, redbuds, boxelder, wild rose and cactus. I do not need running water so long as I have a spring, a small creek or a well from which I can draw water for daily use.  I do not need air conditioning.  Summer, the mountain breeze will keep me cool.  The leaves from the aspen tree, furs or willows will shelter me from hot sun.  Winter, I burn woods to keep warm.  Its orange hue allows me to read and write.   

 On a clear spring day, I carry my backpack, walk through valleys, pick wildflowers, or climb up to a mountain top, lie down on the green mountain slope and bath under the warm sun.  On a hot summer day, I go down to a canyon floor, find a nice cottonwood tree and relax beneath its canopy, gaze out to the blue sky, watch drifting clouds, and fall asleep to the sound of a murmuring spring. 

Now I re-read it and am happy that the “autobiography” is in place, and my retirement time finally arrives.  The description of my chosen retirement place may change slightly, but the general ideal is still the same.  I WANT A PEACEFUL RETREATING LIFE. 

Life goes through stages, and I am happy moving on to the next stage of my life and starting a new chapter with my retirement.  Like Book One, Book Two depicts this special period of my living, another humble journey.

Here is my retirement begins.