Hello 2025!

    

     ⭐️ 🤶  🌲 🌴 🔔 ⭐️ 🤶  🌲 🌴 🔔 ⭐️ 🤶  🌲 🌴 🔔 

On this almost eve of December 31, 2024, I feel compelled to reflect …

My 2024 has truly been phenomenal for many reasons, the biggest of which is the professional publication of a collection of my short stories. I took that step with the moral support of others, including my imaginary 20/20 vision personal guide named Tulip who has found her spot on my right shoulder as my fearless motivator. She is the main character in my stories because I wanted to acknowledge her and reward her for handling me, and guiding me, so very well. Notably, I spend no time wondering how many people bought the book or how much my royalty cheque will be. Those things don’t matter to me. I’m happy it’s done; happy it’s in my local libraries for others to enjoy for free; and, happy that a very supportive publisher took it on, made it globally accessible as a hard copy or digital, and did a lot of the promotional work on my behalf. My goal was to challenge myself, get the project done and to stay grounded no matter how it turned out — as such I consider the project completed. 

This past year has also been my seventh year of retirement. I have finally sprung out of, completely out of,  my very unique cocoon life of atypical wonderful, amazing work, work and more work, along with frequent weekend ferry trips to and from. I opened the hatch a few years ago when I was struggling with the transition, and in the past two years I have sprung out to see and feel the light, smell and touch the awaiting roses all around me, and I have allowed them to touch and smell me back. “Wow” …I still say to myself almost daily … “retirement is amazing too”!

Some of the roses would be casual cycling on flatland close to home and afar; aquafit exercises three times a week at the community pool, including summer season in our outdoor pool; travelling to and from Aruba four times a year serving as a Board Member at the Resort where some family members and I own shares; being introduced to ancient Chinese health care practices I had never heard of or knew anything about — Qigong, TaiChi and Reiki, all teaching me about the human body and the role of all of its parts, as well as the role of the sun, moon, Earth and stratosphere in our lives. I’m also learning about the importance of breathing right, and embracing calmness, quiet thinking, careful movements, discipline, feelings and meditation as the backbone of living a stress-free, easy flowing, rhythmic and mentally healthy life. 

Friendships continue to be important and many of mine have been lifelong; they, and new ones, continue to blossom. A lot of those longtime friends live far away now and we don’t get the same quality time we used to cherish;  but, we all do our best to keep the light on and feel the warmth. New relationships are blooming too and those start with a flicker of mutual interest and then intrigue, followed by other puzzle pieces to see if we are a good fit. A couple have not been good, and I confidently walked away. Others seem to have potential, and I embrace them.

The family remains strong and supportive of each other, mostly through social media and phone calls. We are sort of spread apart and all over the globe, and it’s tough to get together. The yearly highlight has become a summer reunion of the siblings for sure, and sometimes others, up at my sister and brother in law’s lakeside property in Cariboo country — a five hour drive away.

What’s important is always at the forefront of my mind. I still enjoy having a lot of interests because I still enjoy having a lot of different things to do. The difference is that unlike before retiring,  I don’t have to do a lot of external things all day long. I no longer have the stresses of other people’s expectations and demands, and being completely on top of all things related to News, events, issues, spin and urgencies all of the time. 

I now enjoy enjoying TIME …time with me and with others; time with Tulip and with Nature; time for fresh air, freshly picked fruits, and freshly baked creations. Time for cycling, aquafitting, friendships, thinking, relaxing, writing stories and poems, dinner parties, homeownership tasks, helping with social and community services and events;  and, travelling. TIME — I am loving time. I’m no longer feeling busy but, rather, feeling evenly paced with one rotation of the wheel at a time, moving forward and in no particular hurry.

This is starting to sound like the movie title “It’s a Wonderful Life” … although not the same storyline. Regardless, I am embracing the title and declaring it an appropriate ending to this year end reflection — and, a possible segue to what’s ahead. 

I wish a Happy New Year for you and for our world as well!

          ⭐️ 🤶  🌲 🌴 🔔 ⭐️ 🤶  🌲 🌴 🔔 ⭐️ 🤶  🌲 🌴 🔔 

ALL THE

BEST TO

YOU in

2025!