Being Retired took me about 5 years to get used to

I sort of am concerned about people who retired at the beginning or during the Coronavirus. Why?

Because psychologically this is going to be a lot to ask of them.

On one level they are going to be more likely to survive because it is much easier to socially isolate as a retired person than if you have to work with many many people in an office or a factory or restaurant or something like that. But, most of retirement is psychologically (at first) dealing with your identity.

And if your whole identity came from your career or job then you are in serious trouble.

I wasn't like this.

My identity has always been of someone moving towards enlightenment and my identity has been as an adult as a father and as a husband. Since I never really identified myself by my jobs or career, retiring was relatively easy for me compared to most people.

For example, I was praying from about 32 years of age around 1980 for "The Leisure to Practice" which means (the time to pray for mankind and myself and my family). So, retirement allows me more time to pray (unceasingly) 24 hours a day.

For me, retirement was a good thing.

But, if your whole identity is in your career maybe you shouldn't ever retire because you might not psychologically survive retirement. For example, my father passed away about 5 years after retirement because even though he was looking forward to it I don't think he actually liked being retired very much when it actually happened because he was a people person and missed greatly all the people he knew and associated with on his job.

So, Retirement is a very individual thing and you have to know yourself well to know whether you can survive retirement or not.

And even though Coronavirus is a VERY good reason to retire now it doesn't mean you are suited to retirement depending upon how you see yourself and all life around you.

I was force to retire in 1998 by a heart virus where I either had to retire or I was going to die. My wife insisted I retire so I didn't die and leave her alone.

So, I had already (as of this fall) been retired 22 years. And I must say that these 22 years have been the best years of my life.

By God's Grace