I always write my blog posts a day ahead, so although you won’t see this until Monday, what happened actually took place on Sunday afternoon.

I was reminded today (Sunday) — in the most pleasant way — of the years when I had a life: a busy, active, productive, meaningful life. Not just going through the day-after-day routine that comes along with retirement, but the kind of life where you end each day exhausted because you’ve worked hard, and sometimes you can even say you’ve made a small but worthwhile difference in the world. Then you go out for drinks and maybe dinner with friends, your significant other, or a few colleagues from work, and head home for a well-earned good night’s sleep.

I miss those days. But obviously, nothing lasts forever, and I left that life behind me nearly ten years ago. I have kept in touch with a number of my former work friends including my last boss, with whom I worked for 21 years, and his lovely wife. On Saturday, I heard from him out of the blue, telling me that they would be passing by my area on their way to Florida and would like to stop by on Sunday.

We have been friends for a long time, and I was thrilled to see them again, to catch up on life in Washington, who’s who at the office, etc. And as we sat and talked, it became clear that my retirement came at exactly the right time. Because things have changed, and not for the better.

It had already started back then in 2016, and even earlier: the imposition of massive, onerous government regulations; the frenzied cost-cutting to maximize profit for the people at the top; the shift in focus from a friendly workplace environment to a more efficient, bottom-line mentality. Practicing law was no longer fun. Gone was the satisfaction of knowing you had provided assistance to someone in need . . . replaced by the knowledge that you had just racked up a massive number of billable hours by helping a corporation complete another billion-dollar merger.

So today’s visit was fortuitous in two ways: first, of course, to be able to catch up with old friends and recollect those happy years before invasive governmental regulation permeated every aspect of our lives. But also to remind myself that, since I do not have the power to reverse the changes that have taken place in the world, then maybe retirement was a good thing after all.

As another, even older friend said when she called from Arizona last week, she was just checking on a few people and was glad to know I was still above the ground . . . because a couple of the others weren’t.

I guess that — and all of those great memories — are a lot to be thankful for.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/19/26