Walking Down The Far Side Of The Hill – What It’s Like To Be Retired

I’ve got to tell you that retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be – especially when you’ve spent your entire life with a Type A personality. Being either a military man or a cop has occupied most of my time since I first left home for the Citadel at age 18. Since then, it’s been hard just to fit all the adventures into one lifetime.

Now I’m no longer running patrols or dodging bullets in the jungles of Vietnam. I’m not on a plane making a crash landing in Vung Tau. I’m not on a C130 getting ready for a parachute jump. The convoys along Route Irish in Baghdad are over. I’ll never again stand in Nebuchadnezzar’s palace in Babylon, Iraq. I’m not a street crimes officer on a robbery stakeout. I’m not a detective interviewing some suspect trying to get him to confess. I’m not a patrol officer doing a felony stop. I’m not chasing a burglar or car thief through alleys and apartment complexes. I’m not wrestling with a shoplifter. I’m not looking over the top of my Glock at a guy who just pulled a knife on me. These experiences are all in the past.

Life is very, very tame at 64.

The good part is that my wife Debbie and I get to spend most of our time together instead of apart. She doesn’t have to worry about me getting shot by some street thug or ambushed by terrorists. I don’t have to deal with scumbags, cope with the deaths of both good guys and bad guys, and it’s no longer necessary to put up with the political horse manure in the military and law enforcement communities.

We’ve traveled some, and we’ll travel more. But the last three years since my retirement have been mostly a time of adjustment. The big adventures may be over, but the small adventures will be of our own making. We went to Idaho and Montana last year. This year it may be Mount Rushmore or perhaps the Alamo and Tombstone. We’ll figure it out.

Regardless, my greatest blessing from God has been to live the last forty years of my life alongside my wonderful wife. Debbie and I are walking down the far side of the hill of life together, and we shall deal with whatever obstacles we may encounter - as we always have. After all, life is all about enjoying the good times in between the bad times.

The mission of life continues…..

Posted by:

Charles M. Grist

www.MyLastWar.com

Life At 64 – The Adventure Continues

With Debbie in Idaho in 2012

I turn 64 today. It was suggested to me that I create a “bucket list.” I politely told the person that I didn’t need a bucket list. I’ve done just about everything I could desire to do in life.

No, it hasn’t been perfect. Whether alone or with Debbie, my wonderful wife of almost forty years, I have spent the last six plus decades walking the challenging path we call life. We have known success, failure, and success again. We have endured challenges, painful loss, and bittersweet times, but through it all we have endured with a philosophy of never giving up on life or each other.

I don’t need a bucket list. I am indeed proud to say that I managed to graduate from college, become an Army paratrooper and Ranger, serve in two wars, survive the bullets, mortars, or rockets directed at me, climb tall mountains, cross raging rivers, walk through jungles in Asia filled with both men and animals that could kill me, traverse deserts in the Middle East also filled with both men and animals that could kill me, jump out of perfectly good airplanes, ride a surfboard at dawn, scuba-dive in the ocean with sharks and in freshwater springs with alligators, survive the crash landing of an airplane, own a business, put a lot of bad guys in jail as a cop (and help a few good guys along the way), start a scholarship fund to honor a fellow police officer’s memory, write a book, live in the best country on earth, have the greatest parents and sister anyone could ask for, marry the finest woman in the world, father four beautiful children, and live to see my wonderful grandchildren. I didn't do everything right, but I hope the pluses are more than the minuses.

I have no right to ask for more than God has given me so far. I only wish to spend as much quality time with Debbie as I can. We have been blessed to retire together.

I received the following email from a good friend. We both grew up in Orlando in the fifties and sixties, and we now find ourselves on the far side of the hill of life. We don’t plan to cash in our chips any time soon, but it is easier to see the end of the game somewhere down the road:

****

“Yes, I have regrets. There are things I wish I hadn't done...things I should have done, but indeed, there are many things I'm happy to have done. It's all in a lifetime.

If you're not in your winter yet, let me remind you that it will be here faster than you think. So, whatever you would like to accomplish in your life please do it quickly! Don't put things off too long! Life goes by quickly. Do what you can today, as you can never be sure whether this is your winter or not!

You have no promise that you will see all the seasons of your life, so live for today and say all the things that you want your loved ones to remember, and hope that they appreciate and love you for all the things that you have done for them in all the years past!

'Life' is a gift to you. The way you live your life is your gift to those who come after. Make it a fantastic one. Live it well, enjoy today, do something fun, be happy, travel everywhere, and have a great day. Remember that it is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. Live happy in 2013!

Lastly, consider the following:

• Today is the oldest you’ve ever been, yet the youngest you’ll ever be, so enjoy this day while it lasts.
• Your kids are becoming you, but your grandchildren are perfect!
• Going out is good; coming home is better!
• You forget names.... But it's okay because other people forgot they even knew you!
• You realize you're never going to be really good at things like golf.
• The things you used to care to do, you no longer care to do, but you really do care that you don't care to do them anymore.
• You sleep better on a lounge chair with the TV blaring than in bed. It's called 'pre-sleep.'
• You miss the days when everything worked with just an 'ON' and 'OFF' switch.
• You tend to use more 4 letter words ... 'what?'...'when?'...
• Now that you can afford expensive jewelry, it's not safe to wear it anywhere.
• You notice everything they sell in stores is 'sleeveless.'
• What used to be freckles are now liver spots.
• Everybody whispers.
• You have 3 sizes of clothes in your closet, two of which you will never wear.
• But old is good in some things: old songs, old movies, and best of all, OLD FRIENDS!

Stay well, 'OLD FRIEND!' Send this on to other 'Old Friends!' and let them laugh in AGREEMENT!

It's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived.”

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Thanks to my friend for his wisdom. Thanks to my family and friends for their support and love. Thanks to you for taking the time to read an old man’s musings.

Thanks to God for this life....

Charles M. Grist

www.MyLastWar.com