Shining Star

You’re a shining star, no matter who you are,

Shining bright to see, what you can truly be.

Shining star for you to see, what your life can truly be.*

Three years ago, I was on a cruise ship headed to the Bahamas with my beautiful wife and soulmate – who happen to be the same person.  We had a marvelous vacation, and on our return to Pittsburgh, I had just three more days to clean out my office before I walked into the first stage of what we call “retirement.”   At the time I told anyone that would listen that though I was retiring from my employer, I was actually just changing jobs.  After 31 years as an attorney, I would now begin a career as a self-employed writer.

 

Over the past three years, I have written a fair amount.  I started this blog, which now has 37 posts.  I’ve written countless journal pages describing my thoughts, activities and emotions.  I have gotten several articles published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and I’ve written a featured article each month for our church’s newsletter.  As an ongoing project I have transcribed and edited over 30 years of journal entries describing our family vacations, which I hope will provide treasured memories for my children.  And I have written a number of essays and short stories some of which I will seek to get published in one manner or another.  During this same period, I have become an active volunteer, serving on two boards, working in various capacities at my church and participating in literacy and education programs at two elementary schools. 

Despite the fact that I have kept myself extremely busy with my second career, I hedged my bets and remained on “active” status as a registered Pennsylvania lawyer.  I figured it was part of my financial safety net in case the writing didn’t work out.  Alternatively, I considered that it would allow me to practice pro bono if there was a cause I really wanted to support.  So each year I dutifully paid my $200 attorney registration fee and my local bar association dues and sat through 12 hours of Continuing Legal Education courses.  Beyond giving me additional second career options, remaining “active” let me maintain my identity as a lawyer.  “I may not be practicing law at the present time,” I told myself, “but I’m still a lawyer.”  In some ways, I was not ready to give up the “shining star” status of being an attorney.

But this year something told me that it’s time to give it up.  “If you’re going to be a writer, that’s where you should be putting your time and money,” I said to myself.  “Take the time and money you’d spend on registration, dues and CLE and spend it on a writing course or conference that might help you learn something about writing or help you get something published.”

Yesterday I attended a reunion with many of the clients I served during my career as an environmental lawyer.  Chatting with these dedicated professionals, some retired and some still working, satisfied me that I had had a legal career that I could be proud of.  But that career is in the past, and it is time to take the stage for the second act of my life’s work.  

So I reviewed the annual attorney registration form that I recently received in the mail and checked the box to indicate my “retired” attorney status.  Today I will put that form in the mail.  Then I will see if I can truly be a shining star as a writer and as a volunteer.  

* Shining Star, written by Maurice White, Larry Dunn and Philip Bailey and performed by Earth, Wind and Fire