I struggled for sometime with the concept of being retired, so to speak. I reflected on the concept. The etymological roots of retire come through the French–retirer–which connects with the idea of shoot, throw, and draw. It means to re-shoot or start over again which has a much different meaning than I had applied before. I am starting over, but with much support and it is a good place to be. It is good to begin this part of the journey without reservation which is the way I am fashioning retire today.
Lawrence Rabb wrote of waiting because we are too young and not doing because we are too old. My current concept of retire looks at the possibility that lies ahead.
You’ve tried the rest,
You’ve waited long enough.
Everything catches up with you.
And you’re too old,
or too young.
Or you don’t have the money
or you don’t have the time.
Maybe you’re shy, and maybe
you’re just afraid.
How often have you heard it,
have you promised
yourself you’d try
something really different
if you had a chance?
Though you can’t help but wonder
if all those people
know what they’re doing, now
you’re saying it with them:
Eventually everything
catches up with us,
and it starts to show.
We’ve waited all our lives, or as long
as we can remember, whichever
is long enough.
About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope, nonviolence and its anticipatory relationship with the future, as essential elements to teaching and learning.
Academic publications can be found at Ivon Gile Prefontaine on ResearchGate
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
Love it! Great stuff! I should copy and read it once a week. Thanks.
Thank you and you are welcome Deb.
As I teeter on the threshold I have felt nervous about this whole retirement business. Thanks for a different perspective, to start over. I’ve never not worked since high school. I have loosely formed ideas of what I’ll be doing, nothing scripted…and that scares me a bit. But I so look forward to it. In five (5) weeks!
Thanks!
I am in the same boat. I have always worked and being a full-time student is also work, albeit enjoyable work. You are welcome and thank you for a wonderful comment.
I was forced to retired for health reasons. There aren’t enough hours in a day. I have lots to do. I have friends who are bored and went back to work. So as your points out it’s different for everyone.
Thank you for a wonderful comment.
I appreciate a new understanding of the word ‘retire’. And I too struggled a bit with what this stage was supposed to be. And though I still consult I view this time as a valedictory – my children are awesome, my husband is thriving and I have the opportunity to see how I am evolving. Thank you Ivon.
You are welcome Mime. Thank you for the wonderful comment.
Beautiful writing!
Thank you.
how about jubilante…
Another excellent word choice
Retire is a word worth abandoning, rather a word like renewal.
That is a good point Alex. I chose to see it as a re-throw in the French sense.
It’s funny how similar my concept of retirement is and has been for quite a while. I’ve never been able to see myself in a rocking chair just resting and observing the ways of the world (although that’s useful at times too) but starting something I always wanted to do. It’s a happy place to be and I jumped into it very early.
It is that way for me. I loved teaching and being in the classroom, but the politics had grown tiring. I miss the first part, but not the latter.
Retired, ‘RIGHT’ as you now know that retirement is in the eyes of the beholder. When we first retired people often asked “what do we do with our life now, must be boring?”
One cannot believe where the time goes, I believe that sometimes I am busier now then when I was at so called working?
I worked at heating and cooling up north but still cannot believe this fallacy about retirement?
I agree. It is in the eye of the beholder. I stay quite busy. The key is to find something one enjoys.
The meaning of the word is definitely undergoing a transformation. I am now hearing about ‘transitional retirement’ where people just work less and take more trips etc., almost as a practice for the real thing which may or may not ever happen.
I think we have been doing that for a few years. We don’t travel far, but we do it with some intensity wherever we go. There are many things to see.
This was very nice choice to reblog and share with us!
Thank you.