Have you ever experienced something that made you feel like you were in a different world?
Not that it never existed. It's always been there but seems that you either didn't acknowledge it before or was never at the right place at the right time.
Over the past month or two, I have felt that way since I chose to retire early.
First, I have learned over the past twenty or so years, is to not expose any new health issues to my children. The first thing they do is become concerned, checking on me, making sure I'm taking care of myself, have I been to the doctor, etc. It's good that they care about me, and they care about their mother just as much.
Since I retired, I have been spending more time with my sister and my older brother. Not that I haven't been spending time with them before. Before the time spent was between working hours, or eating at a restaurant together, or holiday meal times like Easter, July 4th, Thanksgiving, Christmas.
Now the time I spend is still all the other times but also involved in their times of ill health, which puts me in an intimate environment that I have never been in before. Or maybe I have, and just forgotten.
I hear the words spoken by their children to their parents, my sister and my older brother, and the concerns they have for them. The same words and concerns I have heard from my children, with the same passions.
Your children, they grow up, get married, have children of their own, and whether they live close by, or miles away, they care about the well being of their parents.
I guess, my retirement has given me the ability to spend more time with my siblings, in their intimate moments with their children, and has brought a whole new level of experience for me.
