After working all my life and running unstoppably behind money, leisure time, maintaining relations and creating a happy family, life seems to have slowed down after retiring. I live in the countryside, which keeps me and my wife away from the hustle and bustle of the cities. There is not one thing missing here and I can’t get myself to resonate with my craze of moving from one city to another when I was young. Maybe that is the excuse I give myself, being young! I recall in those days, I didn’t want a moment of rest. I wanted to explore the most, work more to earn more and meet new people. Although it all feels exhausting to even think of now, I’m glad I did all that. I stand in my backyard, sipping my black coffee and have no regrets in life. This doesn’t mean that I never had uncomfortable experiences or never made a bad decision. I made plenty of them, not even exaggerating. But with a strong will and my family’s support, I overcame everything and emerged stronger than before.

I like to spend some time sitting in my small backyard garden sipping my iconic black coffee every morning before breakfast. My wife prefers to sleep a little longer. We have this pretty comfortable schedule here at our country home, except for the weekends that we prefer to visit our relatives and children in the city sometimes. One thing that I have kept alive in me even after I’ve lost energy to do different things every day is curiosity. After breakfast with my wife, I like to take a stroll around in the surrounding area, sometimes on foot and the others, on my old chevy. There is not much to explore but once in a while I discover a new trail that takes me to a deserted hill or a newly opened shop in the town’s local market complex.

I remember the other day, I was driving around the market and right next to the supermarket, something interesting caught my eye. The shop called Melbourne Master Gunsmith had been there for some time but I had not got a chance to visit it yet. I couldn’t keep my curiosity any longer after catching the look of the seemingly newly decorated desk. I entered the store after parking my car safely and started talking to the guy behind the desk. He told me all about Melbourne Gunsmith and what their services were, gun repairing and cleaning being the prime of them. I had never been close to guns or been friends with anyone owning a gun my entire life, so it seemed to interest me. The guy illustrated to me cleaning and threading of one of the guns he had in. And I was glad to learn something new yet another day.

One other day, I remember meeting an old shepherd with a great flock of sheep and a book in his hand in Roman script. The man had a shabby english accent and we fell into a conversation almost instantly. He told me how he had to live in different countries, taking ships from one place to another in the search of a permanent home. He had never been to a school but was taught his mother tongue well by his parents. He knew to speak more languages than anyone I had met before. I was fascinated by the way he lived and the ideologies he pertained to.

Some days, my wife likes to join me on these rides. She is the most empathetic and kind human I’ve come across in my life. We have been married for over two decades, after my first wife was taken away from me. She looks at things differently from me and has an interpretation & awe for the most ordinary of things. Like the colorful bird we once saw sitting on a tree near a field. Or a small child who was concentrating so hard on eating her ice cream as fast as she could that she ended up dropping it accidentally. We bought her another one and she was thrilled out of her wits.

I have learnt plenty of life lessons from these strolls and that is what I cherish the most about them. They will stay with me for the rest of my days and I love to pass these lessons and stories on over to my children and grandchildren. What you don’t learn from personal experience, you learn from other’s experiences, is what I believe and have exercised my whole life. On such weekends, when I have had one or two extra glasses of wine and am at peace around my kids, I share my revered experiences with them and love to hear their stories. They remind me of my youth, but there is not one thing I’d trade for this life to go back to being young again.