This is the first volume of my blog. I am going to call it “Ordinary Thoughts” and that is what I’ll focus on, my daily ordinary thoughts. When I retired about a year ago, I made a bucket list of some of the things I wanted to do with my free time and a blog was one of the items. Until I retired, I thought I was stopping to smell the roses, but now that a year has almost past, I know otherwise. So here it goes….my ordinary thoughts as I stop and smell the roses.
Prior to retiring, I was always rushing here and there; working overtime on a project; running out the door at 4:00 am to catch a train to San Francisco; cleaning my home; grocery shopping; running errands; and even a vacation was planned and scheduled. You get it. I didn’t have lots of extra time. Was I unhappy? Not at all. I loved my family, friends, job, and life. But now I am really trying to stop and smell the roses.
Now that I have time to think in depth, I’ve realized how much I didn’t give lots of thought to life in general. Not that I was reckless with my decisions, but I gave mostly minimal thoughts to issues and concerns. While working, I focused and took time to plan out thoughtfully the current project or task that I was working on. In hindsight, that was my focus much of the time. You might say well that is crazy. But is it? In today’s world I believe that many give more thought to buying a car or a new phone, then to the important issues in life. Even when driving on the freeway I have looked over at the car next to me and the driver is texting, and all while driving 65 miles per hour down the road. How unfocused is that?
I have a beautiful backyard. Until a couple of months ago, I rarely spent more than 5 minutes in the yard on a weekly basis. Now I sit in the backyard for at least 30 minutes or more almost every day. I bring a book, cup of coffee, or glass of wine and relax. Wow…. I’ve lived in this house for 13 years, so this is a sad tale. In fact, for about the first eight months I was retired, I rarely spent time in this beautiful backyard. What a waste! I felt that I needed to be busy even though I wasn’t working, and relaxing didn’t fit into the equation. Since spending more time in the backyard, I see the neighborhood brown owl who flies over almost daily; watch our local squirrel run up and down the fence and laugh when the little guy teases our black lab Sophie by stopping and squeaking on the fence right above her. I noticed a large nest in one of the trees. My husband Sal tells me that nest has been there for a while, but I never noticed. I am working to change my ways. I’ll share my progress as I move forward.
My Ordinary Thoughts 