It’s official. This week at work, we announced that I’m retiring. The idea that I have just over four months left at work is exciting and a little strange all at the same time.

Welcome to the 53rd edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a decluttering challenge for the week. This week, I discuss why I have a hard time saying the word retirement, along with three ways mushrooms are helping the planet, and the daunting task of decluttering t-shirts and sweatshirts.

On my mind this week: Word on the street says…I’m retiring

At our team meeting on Monday, my leader told our team that I’m retiring at the end of June. Over the course of the week, we shared the news with other co-workers. Everyone who heard the news was happy and excited for me but concerned about the knowledge I’m taking with me when I leave. One of my former leaders said I should “plug my brain into a USB port and upload all my knowledge and experience into the network before I leave”. That made me smile!

I’ve spent the last 34 years working in the retirement business, helping people save for their retirement. Yet every time I say the word “retiring” when I talk about my own plans, I can’t help but put it in air quotes.

How the world views retirement

The origins of the word retirement come from the French word retirer which means to retreat or withdraw. For the most part, the world views retirement as a time of closure or an ending—a time to leave productive life behind and sail off into the sunset to live out our remaining years in a cycle of endless leisure. To illustrate how engrained that view is in our culture, when I typed “retirement” into Canva to find pictures for this blog post, I found things like this…

That doesn’t match my vision at all. As I shared at the beginning of the year, I prefer another R-word. I prefer to call what’s ahead as a time of reinvention, because I have no intention of retreating or withdrawing. In fact, I’m excited about the projects and plans I’ve made for my next chapter, and I can’t to have more time to dive into them.

I’m currently reading Live Life in Crescendo, the final book by 7 Habits of Highly Effective People author Stephen R. Covey. The tag line for the book, which Covey’s daughter Cynthia Covey Haller completed after his death, is “Your most important work is always ahead of you.” Now there’s a statement I can get behind!

I’ll continue to say I’m “retiring”, because that’s the word the world uses to describe what I’m doing at the end of June. But I’ll keep making plans. Because I still have important work to do!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the notion of retirement. Is it still relevant in a world where people are living longer, healthier lives?

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Three highlights of the week

It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:

• On Friday night, my husband and I went to see the Kitchener Rangers, our local junior hockey team, play the Mississauga Steelheads. After blowing an impressive lead, the Rangers came back to win the game in overtime.
• My mum turned 91 yesterday. She continues to be an inspiration to me and many others!
• After my retirement announcement, I received so many lovely messages and comments from co-workers. I will miss the people the most!

Things I learned this week

This week’s learnings are all about mushrooms. We know mushrooms are good for us, but it turns out they’re more than just a pizza topping or salad ingredient. This week I learned three ways these amazing fungi are helping the environment. Thanks to CBC What On Earth for these nuggets of learning!

Clothing made from mushrooms

When mycelium—the thin, root-like structure of a fungus—is grown with other substances like sawdust or cotton fibres, it can turn into a material that looks and feels very similar to leather. Kudos to brands like Lululemon, Stella McCartney and Adidas, who are already using this in some of their products.

Green burial practices

Materials used in embalming and those shiny overpriced caskets mean traditional burial practices come at an environmental cost.

A possible alternative is skipping the casket and dressing bodies in burial suits made of organic cotton that also contain mushroom spores and other microorganisms.  When placed in directly in the ground at a “green cemetery”, the fungi help the body decompose and turn it into nutrients for the soil. 

Could mycelium bricks be the future of construction?

When mycelium is grown with cellulose-rich matter like organic waste, it decomposes and binds to it at the same time. Decomposing organic waste, combined with mycelium, creates a dense structure that can then be put into moulds and become even stronger. This takes much less energy than producing traditional building materials, like concrete.

Although this shows promise, don’t run out and build a house from mycelium bricks. They’re currently not as strong as existing building materials.

This week’s decluttering challenge – t-shirts and sweatshirts

In 2024, I’ve been revisiting the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge I completed in 2021. This week’s challenge was decluttering t-shirts and sweatshirts. As a music lover and avid concert-goer, I have quite a collection of concert Ts that I’m not ready to part with. Even so, I did manage to declutter 5 items this week. You can find the details, along with my tips and learnings, in this week’s decluttering post.

If you’d like to join the challenge, visit this post to download your free checklists and jump right in with this week’s task.

I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.