Crossing the Retirement Threshold Together 

Saying "I Do" is the first of many thresholds a couple steps across with purpose and intention. 

​Buying a home, growing careers, raising children, becoming grandparents are just some of the many gates a couple crosses in marriage.  But one of the vastest thresholds they'll cross is entering the doorway to retirement.

Couples today retire earlier, enjoy longer life spans, and are often wealthier and healthier than previous generations. The number of years a couple will spend in retirement is at record highs, and so is the divorce rate for couples in retirement.

Baby Boomers are retiring with healthy minds, bodies and pension plans and a world of possibilities awaits on the other side of the retirement threshold.

​Couples may agree the time to retire has arrived, but then what? How do you plan to spend your days? Your years? How much togetherness do you want, or not want?
"A threshold is not a simple boundary; it is a frontier that divides two different territories, rhythms, and atmospheres. Indeed, it is a lovely testimony to the fullness and integrity of an experience or a stage of life that it intensifies toward the end into a real frontier that cannot be crossed without the heart being passionately engaged and woken up.
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This is one of the reasons such vital crossings were always clothed in ritual. It is wise in your own life to be able to recognize and acknowledge the key thresholds: to take your time; to feel all the varieties of presence that accrue there; to listen inward with complete attention until you hear the inner voice calling you forward. The time has come to cross." 
John O'Donohue - Except from To Bless the Space Between Us. Photo - Ruth Friedrich

​​When children have grown, mortgages are paid and the day to day "busyness" eases, many couples find themselves discovering each other for the first time all over again.  Not only are you both entering a new phase in life, your marriage is entering new terrain and you may be spending more time together now than any other time in your relationship.​

​In the anticipation and eagerness of reaping the hard earned benefits of retirement, couples often miss the important step of setting intentions of what they want in their retirement, as one couple and as two separate people.

What do you want life to look like on the other side of the retirement threshold? Does one of you want to start a second career? A small business? Does the other see themselves spending more time learning something new? Or travelling?

You can mark your well-earned threshold crossing into retirement with a custom ceremony and personal rituals to set your intentions for how your marriage will support you and your retirement aspirations; as a couple, and each of you as individuals.

I work alongside you in creating a bespoke ceremony so you consciously cross the retirement threshold together.  You can celebrate in an intimate ceremony with just the 3 of us, or you can have a lovely gathering including your friends and family  at your home, a restaurant, a hall, a park, or any other place you would like, and you have final say on every word and action in your ceremony.  

You've worked hard to get to this important rite of passage. Launch into retirement the "rite" way.

Some elements your ceremony can include:
  • Honouring the road you've travelled and welcoming the road that awaits
  • Refreshing your marriage vows
  • Creating new “Retirement Vows”
  • Celebrating all your marriage has grown
  • A re-warming of your wedding rings
  • Words from your children and grandchildren
  • Setting your intention for the reaping the joys of all you’ve sown.
​Wondering if this is for you? I offer a no-fee, no obligation consultation by phone or by Zoom.
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