The classic dictionary definitions of the words tend to cut off free thinking:
Work – (1) activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a result, (2) such activity as a means of earning income
Play – engage in games or other activities for enjoyment rather than for a serious or practical purpose – amuse oneself by engaging in imaginative pretence
Retire – leave one’s job and cease to work, especially because one has reached a particular age
There is paid work and voluntary work. Both can continue after you retire. Mental or physical effort can be applied to home and family affairs and in the wider communities of location and interests – from local through to international. The option of what Charles Handy calls a ‘portfolio lifestyle’ (mix and match) is ever open
Play need not be thought of as ‘useless’ even though the ‘pleasure’ that it often produces is frowned upon in God-fearing Presbyterian neighbourhoods. It can be the root of creativity and a great stimulus to sociability.
Both work and play demand some effort but the rewards are many eg it fills time, avoids boredom, prevents loneliness and can give purpose and hope to life.
Retirement does not need to be viewed as a significant watershed in life. New forms of work and play can be developed to fill the non sleeping time with doing and the pursuit of having. There is also the option of timetabling stillness and a deeper appreciation of simple ‘being’.
So there are three blocks of time to be managed:
Doing (work and play) Sleeping and Being
How much time should be set aside for 'being'?
How much time to stand and stare
"Be Still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10) But this begs the question of 'God'. How is this 'entity' to be understood in these modern times?
The Ancient Greek aphorism "Know yourself" was inscribed at the lintel of the entrance to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. It is sometimes expanded to read "Know thyself - and thou shall know all the mysteries of the gods and of the universe."