Let’s start with seven questions and answers that will help if you are newly or soon to be retired.

1. What most amazes new retirees? They are so busy now, they don’t know how they ever had time for work.

2. What is the primary cause of new retirees’ disorientation and confusion? Lack of stress.

3. What is the best way to describe retirement? The coffee break that never ends.

4. What is the difference between a birdhouse built by a Cub Scout and a birdhouse built by a retiree? Three weeks, 17 trips to the hardware store and about $1,500 worth of power tools.

5. What is the retiree’s motto? “Thank God it’s Monday.”

6. What is the most common observation among retirees? “People my age aren’t as old as they used to be.”

7. When does a retiree finally feel old? When one of his or her kids retires.
These come from “What You Don’t Know About Retirement” (Meadowbrook Press), a humor book Bill wrote a few years ago. There is much joy, relief and excitement when a person is able to retire on his or her own terms but – on a more serious note – there is also a basic question: “Now what?”

If you have been to a retirement party or two, you know that – time and again – the guest of honor is asked that very question.

The answer usually involves travel, fishing, gardening, spending time with grandkids or taking some classes.

We rarely have such distinct points in our lives where today we are doing one thing full time and tomorrow we won’t be doing it at all. We won’t get up, get dressed and go to that place. We won’t spend five days, 40 (or more) hours a week, with those particular people.

More than a new page in our life, it is a new chapter if not an entirely new section. In Catholic terms, it is a new vocation, a calling, an invitation.

Fortunately, God is not like those co-workers at the retirement party. He does not expect or demand that we know what we are going to do with this new time in our life, with this new opportunity. He does not need an answer today, or tomorrow. Instead, he offers time and grace, time to rest from those years of working, grace to begin to sort out how we want to best use this gift of retirement, to live this new vocation.

Of course, the particulars will vary from one retiree to another, from one sibling to another, from one spouse to another. In some cases, a forced retirement comes before finances are in order or after health problems have set in.

No vocation is off the rack. Each is tailor-made. God loves each of us. God invites each of us. God offers each of us opportunities to praise and thank Him, to serve Him by serving others, to grow in love and grace: in school, at work, during retirement.

On the Web: Tips on Volunteering

You will find some practical suggestions here: www.independentsector.org/gandv/volunteer.htm.

Bill and Monica Dodds are the founders of the Friends of St. John the Caregiver and editors of My Daily Visitor magazine. Their Web site is www.FSJC.org. Their column is syndicated by Catholic News Service.