refinement NOT retirement!

  Reflections on the Gift of Golden Time Hello, it's Tony again, and I've been thinking about my evolving position on this latter phase of my and Christine's life together.  As you may know, we recently quit our business life, and it's been a journey of learning and discovery ever since - for me more so than Christine - and it continues to be so every day. The Precious Present One thing I've learned is that I certainly don't have all the answers. I'm constantly learning more about how to make the most of the gift of time that this new phase of life has given us. I've come to appreciate that Christine and I have different perspectives. She’s very much an "in the moment" person who wears her heart on her sleeve and instinctively knows how to enjoy THE PRECIOUS PRESENT, while I tend to overthink things. Quitting work has given us the opportunity to find a balance that works for both of us. Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash That's why we sta...

What WILL Christine say about this? Strolling in Kensington Mews before we escaped the rat race Without telling Christine, I snuck up to my man cave and made a monolgue episode of our RnR (refinement NOT retirement) podcast in which I explained how I'm REALLY feeling about quitting work.   I asked Christine if she'd be willing to listen to it on her own and then immediately come back l ive on air to give her reaction to my thoughts. Christine WAS willing, and here's the episode where she gives her reaction .

  Christine & Tony strolling in Hyde Park before the Great Escape As you now know, Christine and I consider ourselves to be in “refinement” (not retirement) but we have most certainly retired from the business that we’ve owned and operated together for more than 30 years. But we think we’ve been “in refinement” since a long time ago - refinements meaning changes we’ve made (both big and small) that have enhanced our lives. A major life-refinement for us was a relatively recent one -  our escape to the country, or more specifically, to The Cotswolds . For more than a quarter of a century we had been living and working in the heart of central London.  Our property was in South Kensington a few minutes walk from Kensington Palace and The Royal Albert Hall.   We lived in a flat within a building constructed in about the mid-1800s.   The property also contained our company’s premises.  It was a fantastic set-up that worked brilliantly for us. The ...

Refinement NOT Retirement (The Two Rs) Welcome to our Blog. We are Tony & Christine from the quintessential Cotswolds village of Elmley Castle where we’ve been living for the past three years after our great escape to the country from South Kensington area of London .  Now, for the first time in 40 years – for the first time in our lives in fact - we’re out of a job.  At age 66, we decided it was time to move to the next exciting chapter of our lives together.  But why avoid the R word? Well, we see RETIREMENT as a negative concept, an ENDING.  When a player "retires" from, say, a tennis match, they withdraw - they STOP competing; they give up.  We rather see what we’re doing as a TRANSITION , just one of many that we’ve made on our voyage through life together. Speaking for myself (& this is Tony speaking ) - I’ve gone through several transitions as part of a continuing process of REFINING my life. (By “refining” I mean making changes that impr...