View from the other side

Wow.  Long time between posts.  My life has been a bit tumultuous these last few weeks and the blog was a victim.  I'm hoping to regain my normal schedule now that I'm officially retired!  Friday June 21 was my last day of work and when I woke up on Saturday June 22, it truly felt like a whole new world.  It's hard to describe but it's like stepping over an abyss knowing you won't go back again.  And it's A-OK.  If you're a parent, you remember that people told you there wasn't a good way to describe how it would change you.  It's like that.  Without spit-up.

When I was reflecting on this phenomenon for the purpose of writing this post, it occurred to me that it's like the Nik Wallenda walk across the Grand Canyon.  Highly publicized, lots of people watching and tracking, a balancing act.  But he made it even though the winds were buffeting him a bit more than he expected.  Yes, there were time the wind was blowing and it seemed a long way to the end of the line, but once you step onto the other side it's wonderfully freeing. 

Thank you all for your good wishes.  Kathy, Paula and Ryan were able to attend the party with Jim and I last week and it was EPIC. I was well and truly roasted using the ReadAloud as the theme.  This is an example of one of the table decorations

This shows "Old Paint"--it's a wooden book truck that was in the library when I started way back in the last century.  One of the English teachers would ride him like a horse and called him Old Paint.  He's badly in need of varnishing and touch up but I like his character just the way he was.  He's used every year to hold the diplomas as graduation so I wasn't able to ride him out of the school on the last day as I wanted to because he was already laden with diplomas.  It's probably the only thing left in that library older than my time there.  And I expect he's being reconditioned this very minute.  Poor thing. 

But I feel as though I'm being reconditioned every day as I consider taking a nap--checking the clock to see if it's too late for a nap--then realizing IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT TIME IT IS.  Or when I'm thinking about dinner and realizing: yes, I do have time to prepare that.  Or when I'm grocery shopping and don't have to buy things that can go easily into a lunch box.  You get the idea.  It's the little changes so far that have seemed so very sweet to me this week.  My first week on the other side.