Gratitude Rainbow

Please don't assume that I am ungrateful when I state right up front that I need more gratitude in my life.  It just seems that it is so easy to percolate in the dregs at the bottom then keep my heart at the surface in the light.

In preparation for a few stories I hope to get published (no big publishing deal but still....), I have been researching child labour in south Asia and found myself mired in the details of the very cause I feel led to help.  It pushed me to feel helpless, angry, and paralysed.  It also made me feel guilty for taking my many privileges for granted. In my attempt to be pro-active and put the brakes on this slippery slope, I have started a Joy Journal.  It is simple, it was an idea online (Thank you, Ann Voskamp and One Thousand Gifts), and, I think it is working.

Every day I record three things that bring me joy.  The online version places parameters around these to keep the participants from getting stuck in the same genre or, perhaps. to get them started moving forward.  Today, the suggestions were gifts that I received at 10 AM, 1 PM and 10 PM.  The 10 AM one was easy - I got to sleep in until 10 AM!  Of course, that is sometimes a symptom of my ingratitude but what a great spin on that, right?  Then 1 PM rolled around and I was staring at the most delicious looking omelette that I had ever seen - crafted by my own hands and shared with my significant other, Raouf.  My heart still fills with gratitude and my stomach says thank you too.

Two out of three is great and I am actually looking forward to 10 PM and what that might hold - a great movie on Netflix? a good e-book arriving on my kindle, a soft pillow in my cool, air-conditioned home?  I just wandered off into the realm of imagination - my inner child summoned me! -  and I smiled at something my little granddaughter said a few days ago about dragons that breathe rainbows.  So, I am thinking, what would that look like for this 64-year-old kid?

I just might have to blog about that!

Three Reasons Why Old Eyes Sparkle

Let's face it - not everyone has the privilege of getting old, but few of us look forward to it.  I am here to share why the place I am in right now is the best place there is in a long life of "places."

First of all, time speeds up when you get older - or at least when you pass that theoretical threshold of being in the last third of your life.  I will leave the math up to you when that might be!  Do you remember when a week was a very long time - especially when it was a week before Christmas or a week before summer holidays?  Now, a week goes by so quickly I no longer have to wait in agony for those special events.  One birthday heralds that another one, God willing, will be just around the corner.  One month to Christmas is really just a blink of my baby blues!

Secondly, I am finally in a stage in my life when I can embrace each moment and do what I want to do when I want to do it.  Life squeezes us into corners and narrow alleyways when we are children or teenagers or young adults.  Now the morning sun wakes me, the day stretches out before me and gives me 24 hours worth of choices.  Walk, paint, write, clean, rest - my choice.  Not all is perfect and I certainly don't live in some utopian paradise, but I do love being in charge of most of those minutes!  Bring on a nap or a whole afternoon with a book.

Finally, (and I am limiting myself to three!), I can be silly without concern for the usual repercussions.  We start out that way; I am sure I started out that way.  Babies and toddlers don't worry about what someone might think if they fall down trying.  They just keep on trying.  I did worry.  I cared what people thought.  I still do sometimes but somehow, I found IT again.  I mean, who cares if my earrings are a little large, my eyebrows are sprinkled with as many white hairs as brown, and the leggings I wear are pulling a little too far out front!  The twinkle in my blue eyes far outshines the rolling eyes of the spectators as I dance to "Happy" or capsize my "float boat" on the public beach yet again.   Silly ladies, like precocious toddlers, make people smile.  We give them hope that one day, they too might be able to let it all "hang out!"
 

Five Mind Games to Annihilate Boredom in Retirement

Most of the time I write from the Mountaintop of Satisfaction rather than the Valley of Disgruntlement!  Today I am taking a different approach as it occurred to me that no one lives on the mountain top every day!  Many can coast down pretty quickly and I thought, maybe, while I was down here visiting the doldrums I might figure out some witty, unique ideas to dig my way out - at least to the surface of Ho Hum.

Due to some recent health issues in our little family of two, I re-jigged my retirement from self-centred to temporary caregiver.  This was a willing and loving choice and I would certainly make it over and over again if necessary.  I found myself suddenly in charge of all decisions - shopping, cooking, cleaning, deciding, communicating, and supporting, encouraging and coaching.  I realize there are many out there who do this on a regular basis and I salute you - truly.  I have been reminded that I am so blessed to have a man in my life who loves to cook and clean and anything else I leave undone.  We have fallen into a rhythm of sorts "putzing" in our areas of expertise, seeking out our creative endeavors separately and spending evenings hanging out with each other or family or friends.  That all changed last week.

I discovered that I actually enjoyed cooking again (in small bouts) and shopping was slower when I did it but oh so much more interesting.  I had great chats with the Superstore staff as they rushed to assist me in the bulk foods aisle or point me to the coconut milk in the Asian food aisle. I loved searching through recipes and planning the day`s meal based on my recent purchases.  I even liked my solitude as my significant other napped.  I felt in charge!  Drunk with it, actually!

This week, he is feeling better, my control-freak, manager role has been re-engineered to official cleaner-upper and bed maker again and, sorry to say,  I got grumpy, people.  I slid down off that mountain top of control and I didn`t know how to put the brakes on! As per usual, I slid past the Plateau of the Usual and landed somewhere in the basement!  So I have come up with five activities (or mind games!  You decide!) anyone could use to confront boredom when you dive bomb into something less than Ho Hum:

1.  Embrace your strengths.
Take a look around you and figure out which tasks/skills you are great at and which you would willingly give away.  This obviously would have to be a negotiated state of existence if you have a significant other who is great at the same tasks.  Of course, if you are in a long term partnership with established roles and responsibilities that have evolved over many years, you may be in for a much longer discussion than someone like me with only five years under my (our) belt(s).  I am actually good at organizing, finessing, fussing, perfecting - really.  So I will finesse well this week!  Just saying!

2. Enhance your performance.
When I arrived in my new, retirement abode last year, my partner had been here for one month alone.  Everything was arranged to his liking.  The pantry, the kitchen shelves, the storage areas, and, of course, the garage - all were done.  In My view - temporary; in His view - permanent!  We eventually sorted out the yours/mine/ours of homemaking.  Now, with the break in our ten-month old routine last week, I felt like I had to find my place again.

I delved into my former role of cleaner and polisher with abandonment.  I reveled in the shiny surfaces, the super clean kitchen counters, the perfectly made bed.  It fulfilled my OCD leanings fully.  This week I added a new floral arrangement so I could doubly enjoy it.

3. Feed your creative genius.
I have been missing my twice weekly water colour painting classes!  I found that those two days a week of focused learning and experimenting multiplied into hours of painting and reading about painting.  It took over from my writing fever a little and filled me with child-like excitement - adding a sense of adventure to my week.  With that gone - now what? The emptiness I had filled with shopping and cooking last week felt emptier now.  The silence shouted at me.

I reminded myself about my writing, my blogs, my slightly wonky interest in some decorating DIY's and I felt my spirit rejuvenate.  There is truly something to be said about feeding your creative self.  So, fellow retirees, go out there and create: paintings, pottery, beautiful gardens, artisan breads.  You will feel RENEWED!  I will be out there with you this week!

4.  Play
I have only recently found my inner child and sometimes I still shove her back into the dark corner of my soul instead of inviting her to come out and play.  My partner truly showed me the joy of liberating this rather unruly little girl only five years ago.  It has been so fun to be that child again, play tricks, do silly things, verbalize the funny words that gurgle up inside of me at the oddest moments.  It is also the first thing I shut down when I hit the basement.  Make sure your inner child, the fun one - not the tantrum throwing one - gets to come out and play every day!  Mine surfaced finally last night as we danced a waltz in our kitchen to my personal rendition of "At Last."

5. Talk
So, words are my medium - right?  I love words.  I love how words can paint pictures so vibrant that they live inside my mind even when my eyes are closed.  Words paint emotions for me like colours write stories for others.  It is so important to use my words to share my thoughts, my day, my little corner of the world.  I could write someone a much better letter than share a conversation on the phone.  Words live on paper; they disappear over a wire.  However, it would be difficult to carry out all conversations that way - although I have seen many a teenager attempt that!  So, this week, I will focus even if it takes effort, I will smile, I will speak and share my day, my hopes, my dreams.  I will spin stories and future plans and, yes, even have difficult conversations about who will cook next week.

And that, my friends are the five steps I decided on that would carry me back up to the Plateau of Usual.  Why, I think I might even make it up a few more levels if I can just find the pictures to insert into this post so I can get it published!

See you on the mountaintop!

Retired Introverts

I woke up this morning (a good thing!) thinking about retirement now that I have reached my one-year anniversary and realized I am still learning how to be retired.

My first observation in the wee hours - retirement is like starting a new job.  New employees don't start out as the expert on Day One - it takes time for them to figure out the "corporate" culture and how they can maximize their position and contribution within their new surroundings.

Because I am a researcher/analyzer type of person, I naturally spent many hours digging into other's comments - written or spoken - on how they "do" retirement.  Like the new employee, I took to heart most of those comments and felt pulled in many different directions.  I pulled back and hid out for awhile (thankfully no one fired me!) and feared I would fade into the woodwork permanently those first few months.  This morning, I read an article about introversion - one of those "13 ways to make the introvert in your life feel loved" kind.  Thank goodness these two blogs together finally shot a dose of realism and clarity into my blood stream.  Made me look at how I was loving the introvert within my own skin!

Without the distraction of a busy work schedule, I have been embracing my introversion in a way I feel I couldn't while being the best in my work of choice.  Work pushed me into social situations where I learned to be the extrovert social diva to promote and educate and market - all at a cost to my energy and motivation to do more and more.  Fortunately, these times were balanced out with my other tasks that tied me to the computer, working within my comfort zone, writing and crunching numbers!  Ah!  Balance!

Take me out of the "have to" scenario and I flounder - like a fish out of water!  Give me eight months and I finally figure out I am not a fish after all!  The guilt surfaced - how my social activity was being sidelined, even avoided at times.  Wise words (some of them mine!) reverberated in my head:

"You need friends - girlfriends, couple friends, casual friends and especially face-to-face friends."
"Get involved in the community.  Volunteer.  Bake cookies.  Go to events."
"Go to the local coffee shop and meet people. Walk up to a table of seniors with an empty chair or two and ask if you can join them."
"Walk around your neighbourhood.  Talk to people.  Get to know their names."

Can I just say that some of this was great advice and some of it was even great advice for me, but some of it (go to a coffee shop!) made my throat constrict in terror!

My moment this morning realized that my happiness quotient goes up when I stay true to myself,  being authentic within my own heart.  I have taken up solo types of activities like painting and writing to my heart's content.  Learning to paint works - joining a class gives me the kind of beneficial social connection I love while I pursue my creative side.  Joining a writing group puts me in a whole group of introverts! Knowing this even encouraged me to venture out and make my first meeting with them a lunch in a restaurant before I had even met one person!  Volunteering looks different for me than the cooking, baking, kind that I think many of my advisers had in mind.  I volunteer at the local art gallery, meeting and greeting complete strangers but in a setting that houses one of my passions - art.  Instant conversation starter plus I can capitalize on my "being in charge" character from years of management.

Social activity is very important, but it looks different for everyone.  Just like the many home choices (style and location), travel ideas (mode and destination) and financial situations (frugal or on the edge!) differ from one to the other.  Retirement is not a destination but a continuation of the life you started sixty or so years ago - true to character with lots of room to grow and explore and finally with the time and opportunity to relax into it.

Retirees don't morph into something they are not, but for this retiree, at least, they continue to become who they really are.  Free time opens up the opportunity to explore some of those neglected corners of a busy, working, parenting life and infuse light, life and colour back into them.  I was a child who loved to create, read, write and hang out with a few special friends.  I am again that child - just a little wiser and freer to pursue all of this and more!

Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmetic

Growing up in the 50's and 60's the standard education was based on the three "R's".  I was triply blessed as I loved all three!  Now that I look at this, I realize that I still do.

My love for reading was embedded in my DNA.  I have read many articles on how important it is to instill the love of reading in your little ones.  I would shock many moms today by saying that I had few books as a very young child.  I only remember one significant one as a preschooler and that was a book of nursery rhymes - a BIG book but only one book.  I pined to be able to read it myself and begged any older sister available to please read me the rhyme about the old lady going to market.  It was never my mom or dad (busy bakers) - just a sibling and when I finally learned how to read, I was rarely without a book in my hand.  Everyone who came to my 12th birthday party gave me a book as a gift.  By fifteen I had read every book I was allowed to read in our small town public library and was granted permission to choose from the adult books (with guidance - it takes a village to raise a child!).  Now I never travel without my Kindle and love, love, love the one tap purchase convenience for any and all new and old releases!

Ready? Set? Go!

New Years is a time of reflection - where you have been and where you are going.  Where have I been this past year?  I re-read my first post in 2014 (another plus in blogging!) and this is what I wrote:  " I felt like I was standing just below the tip of a ski jump, not yet able to see what lay ahead, not even mapping it out from past experience, but finally, just ready to jump!"

Well, I jumped!  Life is all about change.  Sometimes it just sneaks up on you, like when raising a child. One day you are feeding a babe in arms and the next you are watching her walk down the aisle on her father's arm!  Other times it hits you between the eyes - BAM! - like reaching out to take the divorce papers from the courier assigned the happy job.  But there are changes we seek when we have the time to mull over the details, choose the timing and pick the path.  Like buying a new house when seeking out the mortgage, figuring out the neighborhood and then choosing your move in date gets you your new home.  Of course, nothing is ever that cut and dried!

The Countdown Continues

My counter is running down and I now have 18 days of work left before I head off into the re-design of my life - RETIREMENT.  So many decisions are scattered along this road to retirement - the when and where, the how and how not - I shuffled and dealt and finally the deal was done!  The when was decided first; then came the where and the how.  I chose an oasis in the desert surrounded by the beautiful Rocky Mountains and a day's drive to visit daughters and grandchildren south, west and east!  A house was sold (YEAH!) and a new one purchased (YEAH).  Movers were hired (Williams Moving Solutions and they were awesome!) and furniture dispatched.

Although I am contracted to work until the end of June, I took two weeks off to meet my furniture in the lovely Okanagan and Raouf and I unpacked and established our new retirement home.  I was too busy to have second thoughts.  Too joyful to think about the last pay cheque.  Too excited to even pull up my budget spreadsheet and re-enter the numbers as the actual numbers started to flow in!

Our view from the back yard.  serene!

By the end of the two weeks, my head was surfacing into reality just a little.  I started taking care of the business of a move into a new province.  I was so glad I had made initial inquiries and set up all of our utilities well ahead of time.  Note to snowbirds undertaking an inter-provincial move:  Never leave these to the last week or two - you won't have time to mull through all the options. Although gas and electricity were a snap (Fortis BC for both but set up separately) the internet provider was more challenging.  We were moving into a smaller community and I had underestimated the choices that might NOT be available!  I discovered that Shaw was almost into Osoyoos but not into our area; Telus could provide service but the speed was too slow for Netflix; and, satellite is apparently so unreliable you only go that way if you have to!  We were attracted by Naked ADSL but just reading about it and all the considerations became a wearisome process.  Just when I was almost ready to go Naked (heh heh!), I discovered another provider through an overlooked source - the Osoyoos Town website!  Eastlink provides all services much like Shaw.  With a few phone calls, we were all set to get set the day after our move.  With Eastlink we had phone and internet.  We have eschewed cable TV for six months already and will not likely go back.  Utilities Box - CHECK!

Inter-provincial car registration - next!   ICBC website has a NEW to BC help section - guess I should have read that first!  However, with a little help from the staff at the insurance company, we got it together and the car was registered and insured.  The cost of my insurance was through the roof due to a recent accident in Alberta (no witnesses!).  Bad news!  But it will go down significantly next year when I  turn 65 - good news!  Also, if you are from Alberta, you will need to install a plate on the front of your car!  We were lucky to have a brand new Honda Civic and dropped into our local dealer who installed it free of charge.  The plate "holder" was in the trunk under the carpet so don't panic - your's may be too!   Vehicle "stuff - CHECK!

Property taxes - next!  We sauntered over to the Town Office (so awesome to walk into a small town office rather than trying to figure out what department to access!  We were pleased to find out that BC subsidizes seniors (65 or older) to the tune of 60% on property taxes!  Yahoo.  Note to new arrivals- you will need to have your drivers licence and your health care changed over before you qualify as a resident.  As long as you can do this before the end of the year, you can get a refund on your taxes paid.  You just have to fill out the form and pop into the town office!  We will - cost savings will more than cover the additional auto insurance premium!!  Property Tax - CHECK - well, partially as we don't qualify yet for the health insurance!

Before you can say "red or white", I was hopping on to my flight back to the big city of Calgary.  I am now settled into my daughter's guest room for my final days of work - 18 but then who's counting!  Well, for one - ME!!  Eighteen days of actual work - wow.

My blog will take on a new theme soon - the life of a new retiree!  My main priority will be settling in and exploring our new hometown!  Raouf is already sniffing out new fishing holes and I - well, I will start to get the arts/theatre/writing scene sorted out!  Oh yes, with plenty of wandering through the desert checking out the flora and fauna and sampling the local wines along the way.

The Bloomin' Move

Ah \- to be 15 years old!

I spent my whole growing-up phase of life in the same home - a little two bedroom apartment in the back of my parents bakery on the Canadian prairies - small town girl, same friends all the way through school, summers filled with playing "Knock, Knock, Ginger" and bicycle trips out to the famed Chickadee Land.  I played in a sandbox filled with sand from the famous sand dunes (Spirit Sands) just north of our little town and still remember the fun ferry ride across the Assiniboine River before the current bridge emerged.  So, to find myself moving six times in the last 14 years is so not like me! Moves dictated by crazy relationships or life changes; pursuits of inner city living or escapes to the suburbs - they have added up.  I have learned some packing tips and figured out how to make a landing and decorate a house in 3 days, but, I have not yet found an angst-free path between the old and the new.

Me hiking at Spirit Sands

I have spent the last month either preparing for the move out of our current home or planning the set up of our soon to be new home.  I have learned to make decisions, stay the path, embrace the easy and breathe through the challenging.  I have also learned to lean on those who offer a hand or a shoulder - depending on the day!  Today, in the midst of the proverbial angst, I sit and visualize the view from my new home, imagine the fragrance of the roses blooming by the patio and can almost taste the tingle of the local Chardonnay and I just know, in that one mental picture, that I am home.

In my continual, lifelong search for peace, balance and tranquility, I have not always succeeded but in the attempt to avoid the unavoidable I have sold out dreams and sidestepped amazing opportunities.  I recently posted a picture - one of those proverbial Face Book sayings that really resonated within me:

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."  Anais Nin.  

I am BLOOMING!

In China - still hard to believe!

Guiltless Giving

I read an article from the Boston Globe about the "gift that keeps on giving - guilt, that is" and laughed out loud.  With a downsizing move in the very near future, this has been a daily topic of discussion between my two brains - the Pragmatic one and the Nostalgic one ! 




The conversation often goes like this:

N-Brain:  "I think that every grandchild should have a tea cup from their great grandma - you can't give a stranger that precious bit of china commemorating the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II, for goodness sake!  My grandmother protected that delicate piece of memorabilia for what - 50 years!"  

P-Brain (love that little pun!):  "You have never sipped one cup of tea out of that cup since the day it saw the light of day!  It has been packed in a box for like 30 years now and moved along with you each and every time.  Let it go - it will be the perfect piece for a royalist collector somewhere!  Your grandchildren will thank you!"

Let me weigh in now that no one brain wins every debate - at least not in my head!  Tears sometimes blind my pragmatic self and ruthless energy sometimes pushes past a guilt-driven wish to pay the kindness (and memories) forward.  I expect my children daring to read this blog to smile on cue when I only seek to "pay forward" what my mother and grandmother paid forward to me! and then, say "thanks, but no thanks, mom" and hand it back!

So, how do you decide what stays and what goes?  If you have personally reached this stage, do you get the proverbial answer "not now, Mom, but maybe in 10 years" or "yes" when their eyes are glazed over to hide the "what  will I ever do with that " look.  Having delivered the full set of china to my nostalgic, sweet Oregon daughter, I am now prone to be ruthless and yet I dither away.

There is a lingering fear, from my perspective, that awful moment when I find out I gave Daughter #1's wished for item to Daughter #2 - hurting feelings, playing favorites, tossing the important stuff, gifting the ugly - I think you get it.  I will need strength of conviction and maybe a small glass of Merlot to see me through those moments.  I love you, daughters-of-mine, each of you , so very much - maybe so much, I will not weigh you down with my rubble!!

I think back to the scene following my own mother's death, when her much downsized possessions were laid out in full view and realized then that the most precious items were the much used aprons she sewed from dress scraps, the rolling pin she had saved from the bakery she and my dad had owned or the recipes - handwritten on cardboard saved from pantyhose packaging and envelopes - those are things memories are made of and not the lovely little tea cup living out its life in a box in the basement.

So, pictures have been sorted and can be discarded without guilt by the receiver.  The china will be gifted or given away.  The jewelry has been labelled.  And this weekend, the dishes will be sorted.  Pictures of keepsakes will be circulated and all can speak up for what is up for grabs.  The following weekend, the charity of my choice will receive the remaining pieces - and DONE!  Or almost anyway.  I anticipate I will still be anguishing over some long ago crystal glass or bowl.  Perhaps there will be room in our new home for one box of guilt-free gifts and memories! 

Decision Day

To INFINITY and BEYOND!

When do you know?  I have asked this question many times over the past few years.  As one by one friends and family members retired, I waited for an opportune moment and then quizzed them.  Great answers one and all!  But no one could tell me when I should retire!  If you know me well, you will know that my laptop is filled with worksheets and numbers - almost as full as my head is!  I played games with crazy numbers that jumped all over the place - escaping from my spreadsheets, hiding in the tool bar on the screen or bouncing off face book pages or other blogs with similar topics.  I inhaled gargantuan meals of information that gave me mental indigestion and insomnia!  But slowly, I was able to bring order to my thoughts and corralled those numbers into logical columns.  Now, only the occasional one creates a hiccup!  

A close friend and colleague advised me last year at her retirement party that retiring is like planning to have children - if you wait until you can really afford them you will never have any!  I took that to heart and incorporated a more realistic equation into my spreadsheets!  This winter I spoke to a new acquaintance and asked my "question".  She was wise in hind sight and indicated she knew when she felt she had reached the top of her career and her future role was shaping itself through family and life events.  I added that into the calculations and finally my spreadsheets started to make more sense.  With a little more fine tuning and a majorly freezing winter nipping at my nose and toes month after month, and the decision became a reality.  I breathed deep, re-read my letter of resignation over and over and took the leap.  Four months and I will be sitting on the beach, digging in the sand, sipping the local wine and checking out the seniors recreation centre in the sunny Okanagan! 

I did not have that final piece of the puzzle until a few weeks ago - funny how the last piece falls into place when the timing is sorted out.  Once again, the exceptionally cold winter held some sway in the timing!  So now this - my LAST Q3.................

.....can become this - summer in the vineyard! 

AND THIS!

WATCH MY COUNTDOWN BEGIN!

Just Up Ahead

Retirement used to be just over the next mountain, then it became just around the next curve.  Now I can see the sign post just up ahead.  My problem is that I am bouncing around on the details: when and where.  I have accepted soon!

In a previous post, I indicated YES, we were going to stay put, renovate, and live out the remaining years on the prairies.  Now? well, now that we have been living through -27 temperatures, we are thinking NO, let's look at something warmer.  Sigh.

I so relate to the 18 year old graduating from high school with parents and grandparents breathing down his or her neck - now what?  college? university? employment?  No wonder they retire to the basement and surface with backpack in hand and the graduating cash gifts going toward six months in Thailand.  Coming to terms with retirement is a lot like that.  There are so many scenarios to choose from - the decision is a life changing one and at this end of your life, there aren't too many do-overs available!

Narrowing it down to the important things helps somewhat - once the survival questions are addressed!  Now you may ask yourself if there is a backpack sitting in my front entry and cash stuffed in my pockets and I would have to say, not yet.  But if you checked my laptop you would find the www.mls.ca site has been visited quite often and the "favorites button" is flashing.  Excitement has replaced the fear I struggled with over the years - now I know I have enough to live on and even enough to travel a little - my eyes are focused forward and anticipation is building!

Tipping Point

I have been around and around these questions: 'What will retirement look like? Where will we live? and what will I do with all of those hours that will no longer be filled up with students and teachers and excel spreadsheets?'  I have also wondered, 'When will I know?'

I spoke with a lovely and wise retiree this past December on a quick foray into a warmer climate and she shared one of those "tipping-point" tidbits that stick in your brain.  I have often quizzed any retiree that has crossed my path lately, and I put my usual question out to her, 'How do you know when it is time?'  She smiled and shared that, for her, it was reaching that point in her career when there were no more mountains to climb.   She felt she had arrived and a new life was beckoning to her with a new role and new experiences. I carried this little bit of observation home with me, back to the winter blizzards, icy sidewalks and my life work.

I measured the distance I had traveled in my career and what was over the current mountain top - all I could see for miles was crystal clear air, blue, brilliant skies and a crisp new page of my life.  In the past, I had already usually filled in a few lines before I took a glance in that direction.  Then, I was well on my way defining the next challenge I would take on, how this program here might be elevated from great to fantastic or that process over there might be made more efficient or effective. I always had a plan brewing before I peaked into the next year.  Not  this year.  I felt like I was standing just below the tip of a ski jump, not yet able to see what lay ahead, not even mapping it out from past experience, but finally, just ready to jump!

The biggest decision was to go for it; the rest of it is the details.  I think the details always preempted the decision before.  A new perspective broadened my horizon - thank goodness for wise women!  So, I am retiring within the year.

The first detail to manage was our living accommodations.   These details have been littering my path for at least three years as I ran the scenarios through my mind, back and forth, here? there? where?  That was then followed by hours of number crunching, thousands of words of discussing and months of thinking.  So, the numbers are crunched and the silence is deafening as the words fall into their slots in the plan for the next five years.

What lies ahead?  Many of you have already arrived and thank you, as you were my best source of data as I mined for guidance.  We have been blessed with a gift I wish I could claim as forethought - one of those, all knowing decisions you make when everyone slaps you on the back for being so brilliant.   Alas, this was more an accident than a plan but when we purchased our small home three years ago, we actually had latched on to a source of income that will hopefully pad the retirement rocking chair somewhat and catapult us off into the rest of the world we so want to explore.  

A year ago, we finished the bottom two levels of our house because it seemed to be a good investment and it would give us the extra room to entertain our large family and the many grandchildren.  Well, the family has spread out across our beautiful country and the grandchildren who are close are not quite as inclined to hang out at Grandma's when it is only a few blocks to go home so, we have finally realized that with a few more dollars, we can change our lovely family room, guest rooms, bathroom and backyard into a rental property that will finance our dreams over the coming years and maybe even provide living space for a live-in caretaker that could keep us out of the nursing home - but that will be in a later plan!

So, now, we are sourcing plumbers and general contractors, cabinet makers and finish carpenters and getting closer to our dream.  With the vacancy rate near 0% in Calgary, I think, it is now or never.  We can at least pay for the small renovations required  and, if it pans out, we will hopefully be able to finance some sunny forays into new countries, cultures and experiences.  Next career - Landlord!  Stay tuned!