Living Retired — ‘Mastering Doing Nothing.’

Health experts have long suggested that Living Retired may lead to a sedentary lifestyle. They recommend we keep active socially, mentally, and physically. This is why many retirees socialize playing cards with their friends, read to keep their brain active, and play pickleball so they can gripe about the emergency room wait times.

But now we are being told the opposite. Autumn Grant, a mindfulness teacher in Halifax, stresses the importance of creating space for unstructured moments. Her thinking is backed by Dr. Divi an intuitive coach in Vancouver who suggests we pump the brakes. Essentially, they say we need to master the art of doing nothing.

Doing nothing was what my Living Retired ears have been waiting to hear ever since Covid when Jan and I decided to spend more time together cooking. All we accomplished was gaining weight eating homemade sourdough bread and tearing my rotator cuff waving the dish towel underneath the smoke alarm. Last week I began my mission to teach myself to do nothing. It got off to a rocky start…

At breakfast Jan said, “Gary, can you fix the dining room chair today? All you need to do is replace the floor protector on one of the legs.”

“Nope. Not today Jan. I have a lot on my plate.”

Jan was shocked. “Gary, you the husband who hires a plumber to fix the toilet, an electrician to do our electrical projects, who has a lawn service come in each week, who doesn’t do laundry because everything comes out looking like a Jerry Garcia tie-dye T-shirt, who says he can’t do the finances because he is not good at math, AND doesn’t paint because you don’t like the smell of paint thinner? Now you’re trying to tell me you have too much on your plate to replace a floor protector on a chair?”

“Jan, I was reading that experts suggest we start to slow down, reprioritize, and do nothing.”

“Gary, start to slow down? You have been stuck in your tracks since 1967 when Toronto won their last Stanley Cup.”

I figured the best place to start to do nothing was to make a list of things I was not going to do that day. My list included not cleaning up the breakfast dishes, not making the bed, not opening the mail, and not watering the plants on the front porch. I put the pen down and stared at my list. That was all I could come up with not to do today? That would get me through until 10 o’clock. What would I not do until lunch? This is what I did…

I relaxed in my Lazy-Boy listening to a podcast and topped up the paper in our new printer which technically is doing something but I needed to print a copy of the lawn service bill to give to Jan so she would pay it doing our finances. Jan should be pleased that I was easing into doing nothing.

I checked my iPhone. My step count was next to nothing. Doing nothing was working.

About noon I asked Jan, “What’s for lunch?” I wasn’t prepared for her answer…

“Beats me, Gary! I think I will take a nap. I am also learning to do nothing. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.”

“Jan, you the wife who writes out our meal plan for each week, who is always scouring online for theatre events we need to attend, who has vacations planned through 2028, and now you tell me you don’t know what you want for lunch half an hour from now?”

I concluded that for me to do nothing would require that Jan do everything. That evening at dinner I said to Jan, “I reconsidered. I am going to start to do things again.”

“That’s good Gary. But please don’t do the yard work, the laundry, the finances, and painting. Begin by replacing the floor protector on the dining room chair.”

Time now for the Living Retired Reader Poll. To vote press ‘Reply’.

The answer to last week’s Living Retired Reader Poll was, ‘To pre-rinse we let our dog lick the plates.’

Living Retired is written by me, Gary Chalk and distributed throughout North America. If you would like me to speak at your service club, corporate event, or retirement party drop me an email Gchalk@me.com

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