Why Is Retirement So Hard?

By Lee Duigon

November 24, 2022

Which of these expectations turned out for you?

“I love retirement! Now I have time to do all these things I’ve always wanted to do but didn’t have the time. These are truly golden years!”

Or this: “How come, when I was going out to work every day, I was still able to get all these things done around the house? Rooms got vacuumed, furniture got dusted, groceries got bought as needed—and there was still time available for watching The Rockford Files. But now that I’m retired, I just can’t seem to do everything!”

Ask anyone. My sister, my brother, my daughter-in-law, my wife’s friends—they’ll all tell you the same thing. Since they retired, they just can’t keep up. Things don’t get done. Where in the world does the time go? Before retirement, we even had time to arrange these big family dinners, fifteen or sixteen of us around the table with this great big spread of lovely food. How did we ever manage that?

I’m a writer, so I don’t retire: just keep going till I can go no more. But somehow, when I was a reporter and editor working 60-hour weeks, a lot more got done around here. We even gave a party now and then. How did we do that?

Now it’s all we can do just to pull off a Thanksgiving dinner for just the two of us and relax with “Godzilla vs. Megalon” while the turkey’s cooking. There’s no one we can invite to join us, everybody’s either died or moved away. And somehow I’ve lost my taste for driving on the Garden State Parkway.

Whatever happened to “As you grow older, life grows easier?” Who was the madman who first said that?

Oh, the fun of showing up for Thanksgiving at my mother’s house with a pillow tucked under my shirt so she could see it and cry out “O holy Moses! What’s happened to you!” And the whole family in the living room, playing Mad Libs. Or even charades. And Grandma feeding the dog under the table. And my father played the spoons. Or that time the turkey got a late start and we all got hungrier and hungrier, with nothing to eat except pretzels; and they didn’t get us very far.

We are thankful to the Lord our God for His love, for each other, for our memories, for our food, for our great country and its tradition of liberty and the multitude of blessings showered on it. We are thankful for the work He gives us to do, and pray it may be fruitful in His service.

For these we still have all the time we need.

May the Lord bless you and keep you: in Jesus’ name, Amen.

I have discussed these and other topics throughout the week on my blog, http://leeduigon.com/ . Click the link and drop in for a visit. My articles can also be found at www.chalcedon.edu/ .

E-Mail Lee Duigon: leeduigon@verizon.net