Pause, Take a Deep Breath...

The common saying that you are busier in retirement than when working is true. I figured out why. When working, you have scheduled downtime. When retired, it is all downtime and you fill it with projects, hobbies, social calendar stuff, volunteer things, and family meet-ups until you crash into bed at the early end of a long day.  

This morning the temperature was 69 F which is the coolest early morning we have had in some time!  I was smart enough to pause in my coffee-making and avoid the news to go outside and breathe!  We have had so much hot and humid weather that I have spent just small spurts of time outside.

I stood on the deck and looked out across "our" river and up through the tall tulip and oak trees.  The air was not cool or warm but like a friendly room.  The doves across the river were cooing peacefully; the sound of the crows was distant enough that they provided a tiny bit of percussion that aided the cicadas in keeping up their sizzle; the trees sighed softly.  The photo below shows how green we are staying despite the drier-than-usual weather.  As a balance,  it is supposed to rain all this coming week!

We are fortunate to have a cuckoo somewhere in the woods that makes a hollow call that carries from the front of the house to where I stand as quiet as a small deer.

On this Sunday morning, neighbors were still asleep or doing crossword puzzles with their coffee because no machines were cutting into the quiet.

This is the time for pollinators who help keep the world in balance.  They are everywhere showing off.

They must know how short their lives are and that there is no retirement in the future for them!  Their rhythmic history helps mankind accept moving forward and making our history.  I am hoping your summer is not hot and steamy but quiet and lovely.  (If you are in winter, I somewhat envy you.)

The Flickering Short Life of Genius

I had some down time today and some brilliant perspectives that I thought I could share about new views as I age, when I realized I could not connect to the Internet on this laptop. I had to wait until my oldest grandson came home from his job and he did the exact same data entry I had been doing on my laptop, but it worked for him and now I have access to the net! Of course, my brilliant ideas have have evaporated into the "netsphere" and I cannot remember what I was ruminating upon! 

I am now up in the city grand-sitting teenagers, which in actuality means housesitting while they come and go with jobs, activities, daters, and friend meet-ups. I have tried to see if they want to work in some "fun stuff" but when you are already having fun, you do not add more "fun" to the load. They are beautiful people, polite and conscientious, but our lifestyles are vastly different. My husband is awaiting knee surgery so we are avoiding bicycling, hiking, etc.  

We did return a few weeks ago from a vacation with the whole family where we did bike several miles each day and that seems to have aggravated the knee even more!   I am now making my husband behave.

The family dog and I ponder how quiet this old house is with hubby napping and the teenagers out and about.  The dog barks at the rare postman or next door dog.  The plumbing creaks and the extra quiet dishwasher sighs.  It is too hot outside except for a quick walk of the tiny dog.  We are near a hospital and I can hear the ambulance which cuts the siren the minute it leaves the highway and heads into the suburbs.  Hubby feels guilty at this wasted time but I do not care how little time I have left because I have no control over the length.

My children are off for a long weekend in Los Vegas for a 50th birthday party for a friend.  This would have been out of our league when we were 50.  Hubby's parents were too old to take care of our young people and my mother hated taking care of her grandchildren and lived many states away.  Hate is too harsh a word, but she make it clear it was burden to cook and clean for them when I sent them out one time for a week while Hubby and I were in Egypt.  He was working and I was having fun exploring the city of Port Said.

Despite Hubby's dementia we have been doing quite a bit of travel to see relatives or vacation with the children and I am blest for that, but tired and ready to get back to a routine, ready to find time to breathe, meditate and contemplate...and perhaps blog again.  Sorry this was posted to the wrong blog ...!