Manifesto

If we always need to be "on" and busy we should ask why. If we are listless when bored maybe it's because we aren't at peace alone with only our thoughts for company. 

Retiring can be a shock for those used to constant deadlines and distractions. When you have lost your primary function as employee and busy parent to children who are now adults, suddenly you have more time than you know what to do with. 

We need to learn how to be still and it can disorient. 

Activities will fill part of the void but it is the potential loss of identity which will hit hardest. If you have defined your purpose through career or being very involved in the lives of your children, you now need to redefine your mission statement or manifesto. 

Learning to be alone was something I had not imagined years ago and yet the perspective it has given me is immeasurable. I withdrew from a model that was sold as panacea for loneliness only to realize the model was deeply flawed. If you chose incorrectly your life was made much more complex and less fulfilling. 

You were at the risk of losing identity to please someone else who, unwittingly or not, was busy draining away your life energy while you tended to their own traumas and deficiencies as well as your own.