Happy to be Irrelevant

Having worked for the last 30+ years I’m currently languishing in the lap of redundancy.  “Redundant – surplus to requirements” according to the dictionary, what a heartwarming definition!

Along with the loss of salary I also lost my reason to get up each morning and go somewhere I mattered, somewhere I was needed.  Where was my purpose, my relevance?  Despondency can set in for many who retire or lose jobs and it’s not necessarily down to the loss of money, it happens to entrepreneurs who have happily sold on their business having made enough to sit on a beach for the rest of their lives.  After a few months sitting alone on that beach, while everyone else works, they start to believe that they are no longer relevant, their absence no longer matters to anyone.

How do you feel about being unnecessary?  Frankly, I’m relieved!  At some point I will need to get another job, either that or I may be living in a cardboard box under the nearest bridge.  But for the moment I’m relishing being irrelevant, unneeded.  I’ve nothing to prove, my conversations are about what a lovely day it is/a great book I’ve just read/someone else – instead of what a crap day at work I had/how busy I am/anger at what some idiot at work did.  I’m talking to people because I’m interested in them and enjoying conversation, not to let them know how overwhelmed/hard done to/important I am (God forgive me for past misdemeanours!).  I don’t feel I need to solve anyone’s problems, I can listen without going in to solution mode.

I can try things without feeling the need to gain approval.  I write blog posts, take more photographs, draw and paint and it’s for sheer pleasure, not for submission like some project to be marked (but thank you if you want to ‘like’ it).

I’ve never felt so free ..

illustration by Pascal Campion