If there is one thing in life which is a constant its change. Even if you try to avoid it, you will experience it throughout your life. I have found that the key to change is to go with it, dont fight it as it usually arrives to get you moving, shake you up a bit or take you on a new path in your life you may have not ventured by yourself.
Our newest change is now only 4 weeks away. Soon, we will stop being DINKS (Double income no kids) – even though for us we only experienced this episode for about 8 months and become a single income family. That’s ok, we are old hands at it having had a big chunk of this experience when Bill was discharged medically from the Australian Army, deemed by the medical profession to never to work again before courageously going against the grain and getting himself back to work after 5 years of recovery .
That was 17 years ago and with true grit and determination Bill made his way back into the workplace and was able to work another 17 years to support his family.
If not for his strong will and work ethic, I know that our lives would look very different right now. For starters, we would not be living where we are now in our beautiful surrounds that we cherish and love. And that is all on Bill, who wanted something different and somewhere different to spend his retirement years. For me, never being one who loved the fast pace, our slower life we are now accustomed to could not have been more perfect and to know that this is where we will hang up our hats makes me smile.
In four weeks we will need to begin the process of thinking a bit differently, spending a bit differently and living a bit differently but mostly appreciating that we have been most fortunate to have been able to mold our life to this end place, and face this new chapter together. It has arrived a bit earlier than we expected it to but health issues and taking care of them are paramount if we want to live out the rest of our dreams. Bill is retiring just shortly after our 28th wedding anniversary and during these years we have experienced much change, a lot of it planned but also unwanted change thrown at us at times which was not always convenient and with each challenge we met it head on and simply adjusted the sails, just like we will do once again…one of my favourite quotes which always held true in those times and I will keep with me close by as we face this new chapter together is:
“You cant always direct the winds,
but you can
learn
to
adjust the sails”