July 14, 2024, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:
Retirement can lead to more activities, adventures to enjoy
If there’s an expert in the
Texas Panhandle on retirement, it’s my friend Dr. Mike Bellah.
I don’t mean the finances of
retiring, although Mike B. does know about that, but just retirement in
general, and especially what to do after you finish your main career.
Three of his books are “The Best Is Yet To Be” (2019), “The Best Retirement Gifts Are Free” (2021) and “1001 Fun Things To Do In Retirement” (2022), all available on Amazon. Writing those and hiking on mountains are a couple of ways the Canyon resident has stayed busy after retiring from his Amarillo College English professor gig.
Retirement is on my mind because my wife, Kathy, just did it. I’ve been
retired from Amarillo College since 2016 – I think around the same time Mike B.
took the plunge. Kathy finally left her job a month ago after a long career
giving radiation treatments at Panhandle Cancer Care Center and Harrington
Cancer Center.
So our long-planned cruise
around the British Isles that wrapped up July 8 turned out to be a celebration
of Kathy’s retirement. (Stay tuned for me to report on spiritual aspects of
that trip – probably in this space July 28.)
One of Mike B.’s retirement
themes has been getting out of the house and doing fun and productive things.
He celebrates people who are playful, spontaneous and adventurous. I’m
flattered that he has mentioned Kathy and me in two of his examples.
One of his “1001 Fun Things” is
to go on a Concerts at Sea cruise, which Kathy and I did in 2022. As Baby
Boomers, we were thrilled to see 1960s performers such as Brian Hyland, the
Fifth Dimension and Paul Revere’s Raiders. Yes, we were sad that B.J. Thomas,
originally scheduled, had passed away, and disappointed that Herman’s Hermits
had canceled, but Gary Puckett and the Union Gap and the Buckinghams were
enjoyable replacements.
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| Florence LaRue, an original member of the Fifth Dimension, sings with Floyd Smith on the January 2022 Concerts at Sea Cruise. (Photo by Mike Haynes) |
We also had a local reason for booking the cruise. Borger’s Jackson Haney, a talented musician and lead singer of Geezers Gone Wild, has performed on Concerts at Sea for a few years. The time we went, though, he had to cancel because of eye surgery.
Author Mike B. also told his
readers in “The Best Retirement Gifts…” about determination and used as an
example the quest Kathy and I had to see the Northern Lights. We flew to
Iceland in 2015 trying to see them. It was cloudy the whole time we were there.
But the geysers and waterfalls we saw up close made the trip worth it. In 2019,
we took a cruise along Norway’s coast to see the Lights. They showed up –
faintly. We weren’t satisfied, although visiting Norway was delightful.
So in 2021 we flew to Alaska,
got cleared for COVID at the Fairbanks airport and went out in minus-60-degree chill
factor, nighttime weather to try again. We were rewarded spectacularly with an
undulating curtain of green highlighted by red. Our young tour guide agreed
with us that “the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work
of his hands.” (Psalm 19:1)
Mike B. wrote that “Dreaming is
the first step in dreams-come-true. Especially if you are persistent.”
(Yeah, I know, if we had waited until this
year, we could have seen the Lights right here in the Panhandle. They weren’t
as magnificent as that night in Alaska, though.)
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| The Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) showed God's glory outside Fairbanks, Alaska, in January 2021. |
And I’m grateful that after
Kathy’s many years of being sweet and friendly to her patients while “knowing
her stuff” professionally, she walked out of that career with nice comments
from her bosses and fellow radiation therapists. I’m biased, but she deserves
it tenfold.
I know two Christian ministers
who are nearing retirement, and both say they won’t really retire. One has a
set date to leave the church he has pastored for almost three decades, and the
other has been planning for years a way to ease himself out of his position
while leaving his small church in a good place for the future. But they agree
that Christians don’t retire from ministering to others.
Kathy and I certainly don’t have
trouble filling our time. She will continue volunteering with the Society for
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, cooking for friends, being involved in our
church and who knows what else. I hope to keep writing about the wonderful
things God is doing plus some other projects.
Psalm 92:14 says that righteous
people “will still bear fruit in old age; they will stay fresh and green.” And
one of my favorite Bible passages is Philippians 1:6:
“He who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Let’s all stay fresh and green.
