After the dust settles and the phone calls fade, veterans and first responders (as do many others who had exciting careers) who retire all face a similar question: “What now?”. If your first professional chapter was honor drivern duty driven, full of excitement, challenges and lifetime bonds, where do you go from there? What can top that? The short answer my friends is…nothing is likely to top those mountain top experiences you had as a youth at the peak of fitness and at your professional peak too. So, is all downhill after retirement? Do we just biodegrade?
Hopefully everyone prepared for retirement. Alas, I know better. There needs to be a plan and at least a contingency plan because we all are familiar with Mr. Murphy (of Murphy’s Law) and understand that there is likely to be at least a small problem with plan one. I know multiple people who cruised into retirement with NO PLAN WHAT SO EVER (huh?). And I mean financial, recreational, professional…anything. How do you function like that? Failure to plan is…thats right. Planning to fail. Retirement is a crummy place for that to happen in any way.
Evolve or die. Nature teaches us a lot. Take the interesting case of the Snail Kite https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Snail_Kite. This bird was specially suited after thousands of years of evolution to eat primarily apple snails native to South America and the southern United States. Then came an invasive larger snail and the bird nearly died out. Except a few with larger, well adapted beaks capable of pulling the larger snails out of their shells managed to survive. Two generations later the Snail Kite is on the rebound. Adapt or die.
We are older, a little more broken physically and less likely to be interested in the same high speed stuff. If we are interested, we might not be capable. So, we need to find other things that compel us, drive us and get us out of bed each morning. I participated in hundreds of high risk search warrants, surveillance operations, fugitive apprehensions, and high profile crime scene management and follow ups. If you had asked me then if birding would interest me, it would have illicited a hearty laugh and likely something like “Get the F*&% out of here!”. Yet, here I am. Combined with a camera, hiking and some other stuff and I do it nearly every day. I meet warm, friendly and interesting people and occasionally see some really exciting stuff.
Being within twenty five yards of these massive birds during this interaction was amazing. It was a once in a lifetime privilege I was afforded because I tried something new.. If you find yourself saying “I’m not interested.” and “That doesn’t appeal to me” or similar things over and over then this blog is about you.
The past is the past. I would give my life for my former teammates and I suspect…no I am confident they would do the same for me. But today is a new day retiree or soon to be retiree. Blaze a new path. Take chances. Find new passions. We cannot go back. Memories and bonds are powerful, but rise up on wings like eagles (Isaiah 40:31) and own the sky in retirement like you did in the first chapter.
If you or someone you know is struggling, there is help. Call 988 or if you are in the Big Bend of Florida call 211. The 2nd Alarm Project has many resources available as well (2ndalarmproject.org). If you are interested in getting notified when a new blog is posted and are not subscribed, please consider subscribing by entering your email in the “subscribe” icon on the home page. Then you’ll get an email each time a new blog is posted. If you appreciate what you have read here, please feel free to share as you are led across your social media or via email. There just might be someone out there who needs to see this content. Thank you all and stay safe.
On Beyond Blue 