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Just as I was going out of the front door the postman arrived. This particular Postman is always friendly, always wears shorts regardless of the weather and I’m gradually getting to know and like him. This is how chatting to the Postman went:
“Hi, haven’t seen you for a while, I thought you must have changed onto a different post round”
“No, I had to take some time off work but I’m back now”
“Oh that’s good, I was starting to think we’d lost you around here, so welcome back!”
He then went onto say how he had taken time off from work as his father had suffered a stroke, a serious one. He has not fully recovered yet and our loyal Postman had been wanting to spend time caring for his Dad during the early part of his rehabilitation. I sincerely wished him well.
After he’d gone, I reflected on the conversation. Firstly I would never have had that conversation with him before I had retired. Most of the time I would have been out at work, or perhaps dashing to work or here or there.
Our friendly Postman handed me the day’s post and we bid each other farewell. I enjoyed this little chat, he’s always been keen to engage in conversation although I have always been a little hesitant as I think he must have so much more to do after he’s been to our house. One day he told me how he walks 25,000 steps on each round!
So there’s another advantage to being retired: it is having a little more time for people. I said early on in this blog how I wanted to be a better friend. If I am brutally honest, that’s still an area in my life for improvement.
Back to the Postman, he’s a nice chap. I don’t think I had said anything particularly meaningful to him but it does deserve a little thought ahead of our next doorstep encounter. It is hard to always know the significance of those fleeting, casual conversations and yet I know they sometimes stick in memories with great importance (I’ll elaborate on this another time).
For now, my learning point is to value people more and more. Oh and try to be a better friend.