Tending to Your Spirit in Retirement

Visiting a church was not on my list of things to do in Fort Collins, CO. Opportunities to worship were not on our criteria list. But, it is something you may want to consider when you’re looking for a place to retire.

As we age, we are more likely to get sick or fall and need help. If you don’t have family nearby and available to care for you, what will you do? Will your neighbors look after you? In my neighborhood, if we are aware of a family in need, we look after them. I don’t know if we’re the exception or the rule; I’d like to think we’re the latter, but I suspect we’re the former. If you are working and sick, sometimes your co-workers will look after you. However, if you’re retired, that’s not a reliable resource. Then there’s the church or other place of spiritual healing. And for the sake of all belief systems, I’ll call the church, synagogue, meditation center, etc. a “spiritual center.” In my experience, which I admit is limited, the spiritual center is a great resource when you’re sick or recovering. They are a community within the larger community whose mission is to minister to the sick and needy. They’ve got systems in place to help. So, if you have knee replacement surgery and need meals and/or rides to the doctor, you’ve got a community to turn to. This might be in addition to family and neighbors.

Well, that takes care of our physical needs. What about our spiritual needs as we age? How will we face sickness and death – our own and others? If I die tomorrow, I won’t have time to contemplate my death and the afterlife. But if you have a terminal disease that lasts over a period of time, you will probably think about it. This is a time when a lot of people need spiritual healing. And for those who do not have a spiritual center and community, they may seek one at this time. Such was the case for my mom who fought ovarian cancer for four years. Except for a brief period when I was a baby, my family did not attend church. I never saw my mom with a bible until the last year of her life. She was struggling with death and seeing her read a bible really brought it home to me. She was going to die. On her own, she had found a church and attended services until she was too sick to drive. Then the minister visited her at home. She asked him about death, what to expect when it comes and where she would go afterwards. All she asked God for was to spare her pain. The minister talked with her about the process of dying and about God. They even prayed together. I sat in on one of those prayers and it was so heart wrenching. They had to comfort ME afterwards.

In the end, my brother and I tended to my mom’s physical needs while the minister and God tended to her spiritual needs. But she wasn’t the only one facing her death; her family was facing it, too. At least we were trying. And it was she, my mom, who ministered to me in the final days. She was preparing me as God and the minister had prepared her. So, is there a need for a spiritual center in YOUR retirement location? I guess you have to answer that. As for myself… well, I hadn’t really considered it until yesterday when I went to church simply because I thought it would be a good way to meet people and not for the spiritual experience. I guess I got both. J For me, this just reaffirms the importance of really thinking about where you want to retire to and how you want to experience retirement and, much as we hate to think about it, sickness and death.  Now that I’ve thought about it and written about it (writing makes you think about it), I know I need a spiritual center in MY retirement location. How about you?