Month: April 2024

Living Organically

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

Cardiac disease, type II diabetes, irritable bowel, inflammatory disease, anxiety and some cancers. What do they all have in common? They are often a result of living in our modern world: food choices, stress and the environment we live in. By the time we are retired, we have lived long enough to expose ourselves to numerous toxins in our food and environment. I know that I have eaten way too many slices of greasy pizza and McDonald’s hamburgers in my lifetime. I don’t know about you, but as I get older, these types of foods do not settle as well with me. I feel sluggish when I eat them. So, I am seeking out healthier, fresher, more organic choices in my everyday life. Not just with my diet, but also my home environment and how I manage stress. We can’t change how we lived in the past, but we can make improvements now. Small changes add up.

At the beginning of 2024, I chose “the upcycled life” as my word(s) of the year (WOTY). I chose it, not just for the traditional sense, but also because the very essence of upcycling is creating something that is of higher quality and a better version than the original one. So, this year I am seeking out ways to create a higher quality of life and a better version of myself. Not only am I trying to eat more organically, but I want to live a healthier, more organic lifestyle.

A more organic diet

It is about eating fresh with less processed, sugary foods. I have come a long way from those years of eating salads with iceberg lettuce and ranch dressing. Matter of fact, I have become the queen of salads. They are not necessarily low calorie, but they are fresh and packed with nutrients. I love poppy seed or ranch dressing, but they are loaded with unhealthy fats and calories. Now I use a simple olive oil dressing that I can throw together quickly. I have modified a few recipes to come up with my own version. I thought I would share it with you since I get asked for the recipe a lot.

Salad Dressing Recipe

2 Tbs. good quality olive oil

1 Tbs. white peach balsamic vinegar

1 tsp. honey

cracked black pepper

You can change this recipe in several ways.  A lot of times I will use regular balsamic vinegar and add 1 tsp. Dijon mustard.  Or use lemon juice instead of vinegar, which makes a great salad with fish.  Try using real maple syrup instead of honey.  I like to add fresh fruits, nuts and avocados to my salads, but the options are endless. Experiment and enjoy a healthy and delicious salad!

The Blue Zones

I am not a big believer in fad diets. They are not usually sustainable. The one diet that most physicians recommend and that has withstood the test of time is the Mediterranean diet. It focuses on eating mostly fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans and healthy fats that come from nuts, seeds, olive oil and fish. The recommended foods in this diet are high in antioxidants and help prevent inflammation and obesity. Bonus that it includes red wine in moderation. Three of the five Blue Zone areas eat similar to the Mediterranean diet.

The Blue Zones, first identified in 2000, are areas in the world that have a much lower incidence of our modern maladies such as heart disease, diabetes, depression and cancer. Consequently, people live healthier and much longer in these areas. The five Blue Zone communities are Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Nicoya, Cost Rica; Icaria, Greece and Loma Linda, California. While diet is a known common denominator among the Blue Zones, there are other characteristics that these areas have in common, such as a strong social network, a sense of purpose, and being physically active throughout their entire lives. There has been a plethora of research into these communities and their secrets to longevity. Their diet and lifestyle are a great example of living a long, heathy, organic life that we can learn from and incorporate into our own lives.

Eating local

Local farmer’s markets are a wonderful way to get fresh off the vine foods and they have the benefit of providing a delightful aesthetic experience. Walking along the rows of colorful vegetables while listening to someone strumming their guitar is a feast for the senses. Of course, the very best option for organic food is to forage from nature or eat from your own garden. It doesn’t get any fresher than that.

Mr. U grows a beautiful garden every year and I get to enjoy going out and picking fresh vegetables and colorful flowers from it. There isn’t anything better than stepping outside in the morning, still in your robe, to pick some bright red raspberries for breakfast. Or stepping out your door to gather a few vine-ripened tomatoes and fresh basil for dinner. I use the abundance of basil in the garden to make homemade pesto.

Mr. U’s greenhouse (he built) and garden. I love the weathered wood and rusty corrugated metal he used to give it a time worn appearance. We have to keep a six-foot fence around the garden to keep the deer out.

I am not a big believer in buying “organic” labeled food for a few reasons. First, Mr. U grew up on a farm, so I understand the significance of pest control. Also, I am not convinced that it isn’t just a marketing tactic for many of the foods that are labeled “organic.” (GMO foods and meat may be an exception.) Lastly, my little brother has a master’s degree in biochemistry, and he runs a lab in California that does research on pesticides and chemicals in our environment and foods. He assures me that the amount of chemicals in our fruits and vegetables is minuscule and that it would take much, much more than that to be harmful to us, even over our lifetime. So, I trust him, (even though he is my little bro that used to wear a colander on his head as a helmet), because he is super smart. I still wash my fruits and vegetables really well.

One of the key factors in healthy eating is portion control. As we all know, here in the good ole USA, we have lost our awareness of what a normal portion is. Oversize portions lead to oversize bodies. Once we get in the habit of eating a larger amount of food, we begin to think that is our normal and do not feel satisfied unless we have that amount. Hum…ask me how I know. So, I am working on portion control and being attune with my body and recognizing when it is full and satisfied.

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Michael, Pollan

Stay tuned next week for ideas on how to create a more organic, healthy, and less stressful environment.

Looking at the Lighter Side of Life

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

Did you know that April is national humor month? I guess it makes sense since the month starts with April Fool’s Day.  Humor improves our overall well-being and enriches our lives.  Yet, as we get older, we laugh less.  We take ourselves too seriously.  According to Psychology today, the average 4-year-old laughs 300 times a day, while the average 40-year-old only laughs 4 times a day.  I wonder how often the average 64-year-old laughs a day?  Not enough.

I think that most of us want to laugh more. I want to observe the funny side of life, because it is there…. buried under the responsibilities, commitments, worries and hardships of life. It is still there. Humor is healing. When people are grieving, they need moments of laughter to keep their world from crashing in.

For a large portion of my career, I worked as a nurse in an emergency department. You see some of life’s deepest heartbreak within those walls. You have to learn how to hold the hand of someone that is experiencing life’s worse nightmare and yet, not take it home with you. It is not your nightmare to carry. One way healthcare workers learn to cope is through laughter. Because, honestly, you see a lot of humorous stuff walk through those doors too. So, we learn to balance the pain with humor. Isn’t that the same as life in general? We need to balance the pain with humor. But if we don’t laugh enough, that balance gets tipped in the wrong direction.

Laughter is good for your health

The literature has identified numerous health benefits to laughter. Psychology Today claimed laughter and a sense of humor as one of the top 24 main signature strengths a person can possess. Research suggests that laughter has the potential to:

  • Improve your immune system.  Positive thoughts release neuropeptides that help fight stress and illness. It is like laughter is the dimmer switch that you can turn up to increase the immune system response.
  • Relieve pain. When you laugh, your body releases endorphins, which help relieve pain and create a natural sense of well-being.
  • Increase personal satisfaction. Laughter can help people cope with difficult situations. Since laughter is often shared, it also has the benefit of connection to others. The University of California, Berkeley did a study of long-term couples and discovered laughter to be one of the universal aspects that held their relationships together for so long.
  • Decrease stress. Laughter reduces cortisol, the hormone associated with stress and anxiety.
  • Improve cardiovascular health. Laughter increases blood flow and oxygen intake, both of which benefit your cardiovascular system.
  • Improve your mood. Laughter can help decrease stress, depression and anxiety and make you feel happier. When you laugh, your body releases serotonin (a natural antidepressant) and dopamine (the neurotransmitter that helps us feel pleasure).

“Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.”

Lord Byron

How to laugh more

Just hang out with kids for a little while if you need a good laugh. They are the experts on this, obviously, since they laugh over 300 times a day. They approach life from a lighter side, and you never know what is going to come out of their mouths. When our boys were small and we were on a car trip, we passed a beautiful snowcapped mountain rising up to the sun. One of the boys, excited to share his knowledge with us, stammered, “I know what that mountain is. It is, it is, it’s… Mount 7-Up!” He was on the right track. It was Mount Shasta. Smile. If you are a boomer, you probably remember Art Linkletter’s show, Kids Say the Darndest Things. If you need to laugh, go watch a few reruns of it. Better yet, hang out with a child.

Being around pets is also a great way to get a few laughs. Bonus if they are your grand pets. They are like grandkids in that you get to enjoy them without all of the work and responsibility.

Son #4 has a cute golden retriever puppy that has given us quite a few smiles and laughs in the last few months.

Carefully choose what you look at and read. I get our local newspaper on-line and make a point to read the funnies every morning. Having raised four teenage boys, I can really appreciate the humor in the comic Zits, and the comic Pickles helps us see the humorous side of aging. Try following a comedian or two on social media. I follow Ellen Skrimetti’s IG site, justskrmetti. Choose funny sitcoms and movies to keep you positive and smiling. Personally, I do not watch the daily news because it is so depressing. (Don’t worry, the news still seems to find its way to me, so I am not totally in the dark.)

We have to be able to laugh at the changes aging brings. (Unfortunately, I do not know where I got the picture on the left so I cannot credit it…hopefully I don’t go to jail for that.)

Hang out with humorous people. We were in a commuter van recently. Like a true baby boomer, at first, I was skeptical of the young driver with a bandana and dread locks. We all chuckled cautiously at his first few jokes, but by the end of the ride, we were all smiling and sharing in his banter. He may have been working the tips, but he was positive, fun, knowledgeable and making the effort. We got off that bus in a much better mood than we started. Laughter and a positive attitude just might be more contagious than COVID. (And we did leave a bigger tip than we normally would.) It helps you laugh more if you are with others who are willing to laugh at life and themselves.

Seek out the humor in life. Sometimes it just takes being more cognizant of the humor around us. Being aware and noticing it. Once you start doing this, you will see more of it. Smiles and laughter will be closer to your lips. I seem to be more aware of humor when I travel. Maybe it is because I am not rushing with my head down plowing through my day.

The bike on the left is permanently parked in downtown Sarasota. We laughed when we went to Luckenbach and saw their population sign. Seriously???
We made a detour to Jerome a couple weeks ago when we were in Arizona. It used to have a thriving copper mine but now claims to be a ghost town. Of course we had to eat at the Haunted Hamburger. Bonus that it had a good burger and a great view of the Verde Valley.

My take

If you have been reading my blog for very long, you have probably noticed that I try to keep it positive and light. I try to be optimistic and search out the joy and beauty in life. Why not? The alternative is to be a grumpy old person, and no one wants to be around that person, including myself. But being positive and upbeat is not the same as being humorous. It is not the same as having a good ole belly laugh or even a smile and a little chuckle. I need to laugh more.

We all have concerns. Things we worry about in the depths of night when we can’t sleep. No one gets away from life unscathed. Or, as they say, #$@% happens. It is all too easy to sit with a scowl and wait for the next shoe to drop. I have to constantly choose not to focus on these things. I believe that we should arm ourselves with joy so that when problems rear their ugly heads, and they will, we will be filled up and better able to deal with them. It is kind of like being prepared with a full tank of gas. So, I am making a commitment today to see the funnier side of life. It sure beats the alternative.

“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.”

Norman Cousins

Retirement Life

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

If you had told me a few years ago, before I retired myself, that retirement life could be so busy that you don’t have enough time, I would have scoffed and mumbled under my breath, “right, you just don’t manage your time well.” Now that I am retired, I realize that the beauty of it is… I don’t have to manage my time well. Such as it has been these past couple weeks. When I started this blog, I committed to publish a post every week. I love to write. It helps me breathe. However, these past couple weeks have left me with little extra time to write a blog post. What could keep this retired person so busy? Well, quite a lot really.

Spring cleaning and decorating

The sunshine shows all of the dust and smudge prints that have accumulated over the long, dark winter, so it was time to do a little spring cleaning. Chores do not go away once you are retired, unless you hire out to have them done, which I have a hard time doing because, well…I am retired after all. Besides, it always feels good to take down the winter decorations and freshen the house up a bit for spring.

I found the beehive last year and decided to it was worth a little roadsidea decorating.

Grandkids

It is wonderful to have relaxed time to be a grandparent. When we were raising our own kids, it felt like I was always rushing or multitasking. Now I can enjoy uninterrupted time with my grands. I have been watching our new grandbaby for a few hours every week while my DIL returns to work. Precious time where I just focus on her.

Just a fun bundle of cuddles and play.

My other granddaughter turned eight last week. We celebrated with a grandma nana date. I took her out for a high tea. We both dressed up and enjoyed tea with cream and sugar, little tea sandwiches and scones with clotted cream and jam. We learned a little bit about the history of high tea. Precious uninterrupted time together.

Of course, we had to try on every hat at the tearoom but settled on the ones we brought with us. We practiced drinking tea with our pinkie finger extended.

We have been able to attend several of my grandson’s wrestling matches, which can be all-day events. I am glad we have the time to do this – we missed too many when we spent the month of February in Florida. It is so fun to watch him enjoy and compete at the same sport his dad excelled at.

He is a beast on the wrestling mat but has a heart of gold and still gives hugs to grandma.

Travel

The weather has been sketchy at home and Scottsdale promised to be sunny and in the 80’s last week. We are retired, so why not make a quick trip down there to enjoy the sunshine? On a last-minute whim we packed up and made the short 2 1/2-hour flight. So glad we did. We have been hiking, riding bikes, enjoying the sunshine and pool all week. I spent a few hours in a bookstore, just nosing around the stacks without an agenda. This is a pretty cheap trip for us because we stayed at my son’s condo, since it was available for the week, and we used our free fly miles to travel back and forth. Our biggest expense was a car rental, which we got for a surprising $18.00/day.

This hike nearly killed us, but it was worth the view.

“Once she stopped rushing through life, she was amazed how much more life she had time for.”

Filling the Jars

So, there you have it. Life has been too chock full of fun stuff to write a real blog post this week. I had to settle for this quick recap of the last few weeks in the life of a retiree. I hope that you are able to NOT manage some of your time this week as well. It opens doors for the fun stuff.

Spring “get to do” List

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

Gift lists.  Chore lists. Grocery lists.  Party planning lists.  Prayer lists.  Short term to do lists.  Long term to do lists.  You name it and I have a list for it.  I am one of those people that, even when I finish a task that I did not have on my list, I will add it…just for the satisfaction of crossing it off.  Weirdo. 

Lists keep me organized and on track.  They make me much more productive.  However, by the time I get through my self-imposed “to do” list for the day, there is precious little time left over for the fun stuff.   By the time I finish my list, it is either getting cloudy and cold or too dark outside.   (Who am I kidding, I never finish my list.  It just flows over to the next day.)  We had a few beautiful sunny days lately and I did not even get outside to enjoy the first couple of them. This failure at enjoying life, despite the fact that I am retired, prompted me to create a spring “to do” list. It is a list of the things I love about spring and want to make sure I take time to enjoy during this brief season of new growth.  Things I don’t want to miss out on or put off until summer. Maybe I should call it my spring “get to do” list. 

My spring “get to do” list

1.) Get the tires pumped up on my bike after the long winter of sitting in the garage and take my first bike ride of the season.  This requires that we have the little converter thingamajig to use on our air compressor to pump up my bike tires.  And of course, we lost the one from last year, so I had to remember to stop and get one.  And I did not put that on my list… so you know how that goes.  But I finally remembered to pick it up, the very same day that Mr. U also remembered to stop by and get one.  Good thing we have two.  So, I finally took my first bike ride of the year last week.  I rode along the river, swelling from the spring run-off.   I packed a tuna sandwich and enjoyed it while sitting on a rock watching the river rush by.  Loveleee.   

First bike ride of the season.

2.) Dust off my kayak and take it out for the first paddle of the year.  There is a fine line between taking your kayak out early in the spring and taking the risk of freezing to death, especially if you tip it.  Worse yet, drowning because you have so many clothes on just to keep warm enough.  I have not unearthed my kayak from the bowels of the shop yet this year.

3.) Sit around a spring slash fire with Mr. U and sip an IPA beer.  That is how we do it around here.   We did this just a little over a week ago.  There is nothing better than the smell of a smokey slash fire, unless you can still smell it in your hair hours later (if you know, you know). We desperately needed to clean up outside before the Easter egg hunt on our property.  It was well worth the clean-up effort, as the kids had a great time scrambling for eggs.  Although I am not sure who had more fun, the hiders or the seekers.    

Beautiful day for a spring slash fire.

4.) Go to one of the local Farmer’s Markets at least twice this spring.  It is a feast for the senses:  fresh baked bread, the spicy aroma of paella simmering in an oversized pan, fresh herb starts, homemade crafts and colorful spring flower bouquets.  I always think I will get there and then something comes up. But now it is on my spring “get to do” list, so it is happening. If for no other reason, then I will get to check it off the list.  Unfortunately, because of our precarious spring weather, our farmer’s markets do not open for a few more weeks, so it is still sitting on my list.

5.) Gather some Roadsidea to decorate the house with a touch of spring.  I just did that this week.  My sister and I loaded up the car with a rake and trimmers and headed out to our favorite spot to pick pussy willows.  I can’t tell you where it is or else I would have to kill you (they get picked through all too quickly).  We each got a small bouquet of spring to bring inside. 

Wild pussy willows (left) and the roadsidea bouquet I made from them (right).

6.) Eat my first alfresco meal of the season.  We did this on our trip to Florida but that doesn’t count because this is my list for here at home. Ditto for kayaking and riding bike. We have not eaten outside yet, unless you count the sandwich I took with me on my bike ride.  My sister and I did enjoy a glass of wine outside at a lovely little wine bar as a reward for getting our haul of pussy willows though. 

7.) Find an abandoned bird nest and bring it in to decorate with.  I am obsessed with bird nests.  They are such an amazing feat of nature.  We watch our feathered friends going in and out of a couple bird houses we have on the back patio, mesmerized as they haul sticks, mud, and debris in their awkward little beaks to create a cozy home for their future offspring.   And the nests turn out perfect.  I have my eye on a couple nests out in the bushes, but I want to make sure the birds do not come back to nest in them again this year before I remove them from the branches they are nestled in.  So, I am still waiting to do this one.

I have my eye on this bird nest in our rhododendron bush (left). Some fake eggs in an old nest I brought in to decorate roadsidea style (right).

8.) Lay out in the sunshine and read.  There are few things as relaxing as reading in the hammock under the filtered sunlight from the tall pines. But I still haven’t mastered the fine art of enjoying reading for pleasure during the middle of the day.  I keep reminding myself that I am retired, and I can give myself permission to do this, but it still feels frivolous.  It could be connected to my whole “to do” list problem, but I blame Mr. U because he has not put the hammock up yet this year. 

9.) Discover some wildflowers.  I remember going out every April and picking a bouquet of wild Easter lilies for my mom for her birthday.  Wildflowers will always remind me of her.  We used to get quite a few wildflowers on our property.  Unfortunately, the deer have eaten most of them.  It would not be a problem if they just trimmed them off, but they pull them up by the roots to eat them, root and all.  So, they are slowly dying off.  The flowers, not the deer.  Although we have considered eliminating a few deer that are always in our yard eating our potted plants and flowers. 

Buttercups are one of the first spring flowers to emerge here (left). The daffodils are finally blooming in our yard (right). They are one of the few flowers that the deer will not eat.

10.) Get the outdoor pizza oven fired up and make the first pizza of the season. We have not used the oven yet this year, but we did get it uncovered and the gathering place is set up. I am looking forward to experimenting with some different pizzas. I also plan to perfect the art of baking bread in the outdoor oven. It may take me all summer to get this down, so I need to start as early in the spring as possible.

I got a bonus that wasn’t even on my spring “get to do” list… we found an egg on our property!  Not one of the leftover plastic eggs that our Easter egg hunters missed, (although we have already found a couple of those too) but a real live egg, just sitting on the ground.  We assume it is from a turkey, since we have an abundance of them around here, but we weren’t sure, so I consulted my researcher (aka – Google it) and I am still not totally sure. 

Turkey egg or not? It looks like one, but it seemed a little small (the size of a medium chicken egg).

So far, I have checked four of the ten items off of my list.  That is a lousy 40% grade. But if you add my bonus, it ups the grade to 50%. (Thank goodness for extra credit.) However, spring is not over yet, so I still have time to redeem myself. It is probably more than I would have taken the time to do this early in the season if I had not put them on my spring “get to do” list.  I hope that you are taking the time to do things you enjoy about this season.  If not, make a list and start chipping away at it.  Life is too short not to make time for the things that make our hearts sing.

Living Like a Kid Again

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

What did you love to do as a child? A time before puberty when you felt totally free and unencumbered by adult responsibilities and commitments.  A time before you were concerned about what your friends thought of you. A time when judgement was irrelevant to your colorful world of imagination.

Most of us gave up our childhood interests and play for the adult pursuits of building a career, raising a family and “adulting.” There wasn’t enough time, or money, for hobbies. We had more important things to do. Significant things. We were out changing the world. Then we retired and it was just ourselves again without all of the distractions and trappings of work and building our lives. Similar to when we were kids. We have to learn to be at peace with ourselves again. And we have to learn what brings us deep rooted joy. Not what looks good to others. Not what we “should” do. Not what we need to do to fit in.

How to do you decide what to do with all of this newfound freedom? A good place to start is by looking back. Think back to when you were a child. What were you drawn to before you worried about what others thought? Once we get into middle school, we begin to filter what we say and do through the lens of our peers. Our interests become more about what everyone else is doing, or what is accepted and cool. So, what you liked to do prior to those years can be a more honest and raw reflection of who you are and what you truly enjoy. Taking up childhood hobbies as an adult has been one of the best things I have done in retirement.  The three that really resonate with me are being on the water, writing and riding bike.

Being on the water

Drifting.  My mind wanders with no push/pull on my time.  No “to do” list piling up in my brain as I let the waves gently move me towards shore.  I spent my childhood summers on an inner tube in the water at our lake house.  My siblings long abandoned the afternoon of splashing in the water, hurling off the dock and playing king of the inner tube for other pursuits.  But I lingered on that tube, daydreaming, drifting on the water until the afternoon shadows grew long and my mom called me in for dinner.

In a large family of six kids, that was my time.  It still is.  Those carefree childhood days at the lake gave way to adult responsibilities, and the charcoal black inner tube has been replaced by my bright yellow kayak.  But when I am out on the water, my heartbeat still slows to the rhythm of the waves.  I let adult concerns drift away as I am taken back to a gentler time.  

Enjoying time at the water with some of my siblings. Moi is second from left (the one with the “tude”).
Retired and still loving time on the water kayaking.

Writing

When I was in early grade school, I voluntarily entered a couple of writing contests. To my surprise, I even won one of them. Emboldened by that experience, I decided to take journalism as an elective in 9th grade. I did not get a coveted page editor spot until the page four editor quit and there was no one else to fill it. Then in high school I signed up for an elective creative writing class. My teacher clearly did not feel like I had as much talent as I did and my dream of being a journalist was squashed, along with a few bruises to my ego. In his defense, I was a little more into having fun than producing anything worthwhile.

Then life got in the way with college, marriage, raising four kids and working. For several years my writing was limited to emails, nursing chart records, reports, a few scratches in my journal and notes for my kids (before cell phones and texting). Fast forward to retirement and I decided to start this blog to feed my latent interest in writing. My teacher was probably pretty accurate on my creative writing abilities, but I don’t have to answer to him anymore and I can just enjoy the process and the interactions with wonderful readers. It has been a fun, creative retirement hobby.

My brief writing claim to fame as the page 4 editor of our mid-high school newspaper, back when you typed the entire paper on an old-fashioned ribbon typewriter (left). Writing my blog now on my much more efficient laptop (right).

Riding bike

Being the fifth child in a family of six kids, I got a lot of hand-me-downs. While I wasn’t too happy with most of them, I was thrilled when my sister outgrew her blue Schwinn bike and passed it on to me. I was constantly begging my mom to let me hop on that bike and go for a ride. “As long as you stay where I can see you” she reminded me. The problem was that our house was situated in the middle of the bay on a small lake. That meant that I could ride on the road about 300 yards to the bend in the bay, turn around and ride to the other end of the bay. Back and forth. Over and over again. As a parent, and now grandparent, I get it. At the time, it felt limiting. However, if it meant that I could ride my bike with the wind in my hair and a song on my lips, I was O.K. with it.

When I turned 15, I parked that worn bike in the depths of the garage and I traded in handlebars for car keys. But once again, life got in the way, and I did not own or ride a bike for years. As my kids slowly left the nest and I had more time on my hands, I began to think about that wonderful feeling of freedom with the wind in my hair. It was time to treat myself to a brand-new bike. The days of riding circles with the blue hand-me-down Schwinn have been replaced with a sleek black Specialized Diverge road bike. Fortunately, the sayings, “it is just like riding a bike” is true and it was easy to pick back up. Now I am free to go beyond the limits of the bay and explore the great bike trails in our area. When we travel, I usually see if the place we are staying has bikes to use or if there is a place to rent them. Riding bikes when you travel is a great way to explore the area.

The shiny blue bike my sister got for her birthday, with me on the back (left.)
Riding a bike on the beach at Hilton Head Island (right).

Retirement is like being a kid again

A couple weeks ago I went with my DIL and seven-year-old granddaughter on a “girls’ trip.” My granddaughter was competing in a gymnastics meet about 400 miles away and my son was taking their son to a wrestling tournament that same weekend. So, my DIL graciously let me tag along with the two of them for the weekend. (The feature photo of this post is my granddaughter and I on our girl’s trip.)

The evening before her meet, the three of us sprawled out on the hotel bed with a rainbow of colorful pens and detailed coloring books.  We peacefully listened to a book on tape and colored in flowers, fish, and obscure designs, stopping to admire each other’s work along the way.   It was a magical, carefree moment and a wonderful way to relax before bed.  It reminded me how much retirement is like being a kid again – free to create without time pressures or fear of judgement. I wanted to tell my sweet granddaughter not to let the opinions of careless people and the need to fit in ever crush her creative, carefree spirit. But of course, I couldn’t. Everyone has to learn that for themselves. It is part of growing up.

“Honor that girl inside of you. Remember who you were before you cared for what you looked like. Before you knew the sting of rejection. Before you were told that you couldn’t, or that you weren’t or that you hadn’t. You are still that girl – before the roles, the labels, the pains, that girl lives on…”

S. C. Lourie

So, I have come full circle and am enjoying some of the very same hobbies that I did as a kid. Have you picked up a childhood hobby or interest again in retirement? If not, consider giving it a try. It has made my retirement so much more enjoyable and satisfying.