Author: The Retired Alchemist

Portal to the Imagination

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

Step away with me into another world. One where you are free to explore and let your imagination soar. A world where you are totally caught up in the moment and experience that carefree feeling of flow. The world is your oyster, and you control it. Walk with me through the portal to imagination.

Growing up in the 60’s was a gift that we baby boomers probably do not appreciate enough. It was a time when we lived without fear. Think the movie “Sandlot.” It was a time when moms would shoo kids out of the house, not to return until there was food on the table. I grew up in the country and my siblings and I were feral children roaming the woods behind our house. By anyone else’s standards, it was just an ordinary woods with a creek running through it. But in our eyes, it was magical. Mostly because of the portal to it.

We were not allowed to cross the road to get to the woods behind our house. That was a hard and fast rule, “or else.” And we all knew what “or else” meant. Well, we never actually tested the “or else” threat, so I guess we weren’t exactly sure what it meant, but we knew it wasn’t good. So, instead of risking our lives crossing the road, we were required to go through an old, abandoned cattle chute that traversed underneath the road. Personally, I felt like I was risking my life more every time I entered the dark, damp, cobweb infested, cattle chute than I ever would have by crossing the road. But, as it was intended, “or else” pushed me to obey the rule.

The cattle chute was our gateway to a world of imagination. I am not sure how it ended up being called the cattle chute, other than it was a tunnel that was built under the road years ago so ranchers could herd their cattle through it instead of going over the road. To us, it was a portal to the imagination.

The portal

The cattle chute was a mysterious, dark foreboding tunnel with a small creek running through it. After braving the entrance, we had to jump across to dry patches of ground to prevent getting our feet wet in the creek, while simultaneously avoiding cobwebs draping down from the low ceiling and watching for trolls. I kept my eyes on the light at the end of the tunnel where magic awaited. It was our portal to a fantasy world that only children inhabited.

Once you were transported through the cattle chute you entered a world of freedom. Freedom from adult judgement or restrictions. Freedom from warnings such as “wash your hands after you touch that mushroom,” “stay out of the creek,” and “don’t get mud on your clothes.” While those words of wisdom were shared for our safety and wrapped in a blanket of love, they also made us more cautious. They would curb our curiosity and sense of reckless abandon.

Once through the portal, we were the kings and queens of the woods. We worked out our differences without adults to referee. We imagined, we created, and we experienced life through play. Play is necessary for healthy brain development. It teaches children to problem solve, develop social skills, build emotional resilience, release stress, and expand creativity. We were left to our own devices in our magical world for several hours a day. And while we felt isolated from adult interference, we were really only a holler away from the reminder that it was time to come home and wash up for dinner.

This is a picture of the cattle chute just before it was filled in. Scary huh?

Safety first

Sadly, the cattle chute was filled in years ago when they widened the road above it. Cattle had not tromped through it for many years, and it was just one more thing that was not considered safe anymore. The fact is that our world is not as safe as it was in the 50’s and 60’s. As a result, children lead much more insulated lives now. And a less safe world necessitates more parental involvement. Parents supervise their children at their friend’s birthday parties for fear that the older sibling or neighbor is a bully or creep. Organized sports have taken the place of the sandlot. And while there are many benefits to more parental involvement, I can’t help but feel a little sad that children of today will not know the experience of entering the portal to roam freely for hours in the woods or play out in the neighborhood until the streetlights come on.

Speaking of unsafe. Is it any wonder that we lived through our childhoods? Aside from all of the unsupervised time, how did we keep from cutting ourselves and bleeding to death from a rusty steel Tonka truck? Or burn ourselves up from the Easy Bake Oven? Even more dangerous was the Creepy Crawler machine. I remember going over to a friend’s house and playing with mercury, dumping it from hand to hand. Interesting stuff that is. We lived through it. Now toys are so safe that they fail to spark the imagination.

Portal to an adult’s imagination

As adults, we need to find our own portal to the imagination. We need to find ways to continue to ignite our curiosity and fuel our creativity. Retirement is the perfect time to do this. Just as play is an important part of childhood, it is also important to our emotional balance as adults. It keeps our minds sharp, decreases stress and fosters a sense of happiness and wellbeing. And playing with others helps us build and maintain social connections that will carry us through life. It helps prevent the dreaded social isolation of aging.

No matter what your age, people that do not engage in play are less interesting and fun to be around. They are typically not as happy either. So, let’s find the portal that leads to the imagination and bravely go through it to enjoy the abundance of a playful life on the other side. Just stay away from the mercury.

Find your portal and take it. See where it leads…

Hunkering Down

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

The new year has been rung in, the Christmas decorations are packed away and it is full on winter here in the PNW. I figure you have two choices. You can get depressed and tired of the cold, gray, dreary days on end, or you can embrace them. I spend my time vacillating between these two viewpoints – enjoying cozy evenings by the fireplace and planning my next escape to sunshine and warmth. But we should love where we are. Life is too short not to.

The cold weather makes me want to hibernate at home, read by the fireplace or put on some peaceful music, light a candle and work in my craft room/office. As one reader has commented, “snow means slow.” I like that. So, I have been spending the last couple weeks hunkering down at home, going for walks, then coming back inside to stomp the snow off of my boots and put together a big pot of soup to simmer all afternoon.

Winter food

One of my favorite winter soups is creamy, cheesy potato soup. I found the recipe on a postcard (Western Image) years ago and have made it numerous times. It is hearty soup that sticks to your ribs… and waistline. And if you are going to be home all day anyway, why not make some homemade wheat rolls to go with it? Absolutely nothing goes better with soup than homemade rolls with butter slathered on top (because carbs don’t count in the winter months).

Below is the soup recipe in case you are interested. Instead of using bacon, I like to boil a left-over ham bone and use some of the meat and broth from that. This can simmer for a while which heats up the kitchen nicely for the rolls to rise. I find it easier to bake or boil the potatoes ahead of time and just add the cooked potatoes to the soup. To assemble, make a roux of the butter and flour and gradually add the milk. (I prefer to use a mix of broth and cream.) Then just dump in the rest of the ingredients and heat through. Add a salad and it is the perfect winter meal.

Getting air

In the winter months, it is very easy to hunker down at home, get engrossed in a project and not step out the door the entire day. Who wants to go outside when it is cold and dreary? Besides, it feels like a lot of work to layer on a coat, hat, gloves, heavy socks and lace up boots. But we all need to air out, so I push myself to get outdoors. Once I get out, I am always glad that I made the effort. There is nothing quite as silent and reverent as a fresh layer of snow. Wildlife gently meander through it in search of food, leaving their tracks behind like cookie crumbs.

We have an abundance of these prehistoric looking creatures. It is surprising how big the tracks are that they leave behind. They can also be quite messy in your yard. Normal people clean up after their dog, we clean up after the turkeys.
The dear are the beautiful, gentle animals of our area. Unfortunately, they will eat everything in your yard and garden, which is a challenge come spring.
The moose are a rare treat to see. This one left tracks right through our front yard.

I hope that you are finding ways to enjoy your winter wherever you are – whether it is basking in the sunshine or hunkering down on a cold night. Every day is a gift to be appreciated.

My 2025 Word of the Year

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

I don’t make new year’s resolutions. Probably because I hate failure. However, I have chosen a word of the year (WOTY) the last couple years to help guide my intentions for the year. The problem is that I get busy and forget to lean into my WOTY. For 2023 My WOTY was “awe.” I wanted to take notice of every single little wonder that was in front of me. It helped, but I still missed a lot of details because I was pushing and pulling through life instead of just being… and noticing.

Living out my 2024 WOTY

Last year I chose the word Upcycled to be my WOTY. I liked the traditional use of the word, but more importantly, upcycling is defined as creating something that is of higher quality and a better version than the original one. I figured that should be true of our lives as well. I wanted to find unique and creative ways of Living Our Best Lives. We started off strong by spending the month of February in Florida experiencing The Salt Life. It was a sunny month full of exploring and Living Like the Locals while we stayed at a weathered salty marina. We got to eat delicious fresh seafood under palm trees as we Ate Our Way Through Sarasota. Back at home it is very difficult to get really good, fresh seafood in the middle of February when you are buried under layers of snow.

We were back home and settled into our own lives again long before the crocuses and daffodils pushed up through the soil. I started thinking about the traditional sense of upcycling and how I could buy less and start Living More Organically. The ultimate in traditional upcycling was when I went Thrifting on Steroids. That was a little too hard core for me. By far, my favorite experience in 2024 was booking a house at Rockaway Beach and having our immediate family gather together for a full week. It was not upcycled or inexpensive, but it did take some creativity to pull off. And it definitely contributed to living my best life in 2024. Sometimes you have to decide what is worth your time and money and go for it. If not now, when?

Sitting around the campfire at Rockaway Beach, Oregon.

2025 word of the year

This year is the mark of a quarter century. It will also be a big year of change for us. It seems that this year’s WOTY should encompass that. I considered using the word change or even downsizing, but it is more than that. So, I am borrowing a term from the writer, Kathy Gottberg at SMART Living 365.com. My WOTY for 2025 will be, drumroll please… rightsizing. I give Kathy credit for using this term in the context of making your retirement life fit with your priorities and lifestyle choices. She wrote an excellent book on the topic, titled Rightsizing: A SMART Living 365 Guide to Reinventing Retirement. I highly recommend this book as you shape and mold your retirement to fit you.

Our retirement lifestyle will change dramatically in 2025. This spring we are selling our large home that we have lived in for the past 24 years. The bulk of raising our family happened within these walls and two of our sons got married here. It has served us well, but now Mr. U and I rattle around in this large home trying to hear each other from three rooms away. (Our new mantra is, “can’t see you, can’t hear you.”) We will be downsizing from a 3,600 square foot home on 40 acres to a 1,900 square foot home on .3 acres.

It will be really hard leaving this home of 24 years. So many memories here.

Downsizing will be a big part of this move, but we will also be upsizing in quality to create a retirement lifestyle that fits us. So really, it is all about rightsizing for our own unique situation, desires and interests at this point in our lives. It is living with intention and not mindlessly walking through these precious retirement years. In the coming months I will be going through every single item we own and determining what will be making the move and what we need to let go of. Tough decisions.

“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

William Morris

Moving forward in 2025

We will be moving to this lovely location. My BIL, Craig, took this photo years ago when the place was in its heyday.

We have started rebuilding the home where I grew up next to a small lake in the Pacific Northwest. A place that holds so many good memories. It is only 30 minutes from where we live now, but instead of being 25 minutes from town, it will be a quick 5-minute drive to town, or a 15-minute bike ride. We will be closer to family, restaurants and activities in our small city, and I will be able to drop my kayak into the lake right from our yard. It will be “right” for us at this point in life.

So, I guess you could say that I am coming full circle in my life. We will be living our best retirement life right where I started out in this world. I will write posts about the process as we move through it. I hope that you will join me on the journey of “rightsizing” our retirement lives for 2025.

Welcome 2025!

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

Happy New Year to you! I always enjoy ringing in the new year. Not because we do anything special, but because we don’t. We don’t go out and party on New Year’s Eve, we don’t stay up until midnight and we don’t have a hangover the next morning. The end of a year is a chance to reflect. A time to review the last 12 months – the highs, as well as the lows. And more importantly, it is a chance to take some quiet time to consider the future.

For me, the very best thing about a new year is an opportunity for fresh starts. It is a mark on the calendar that reminds us to stop and think about our lives and how we want to move forward. It is a time to decide what we want to carry over into the new year and what we want to dust off of our feet and leave behind in 2024. And while we had some wonderful times in 2024, we also had several things that I am happy to leave behind. So, bring on the new year! May your year ahead be full of precious moments and wonderful adventures.

Goodbye 2024.

What’s in Your Retirement Wardrobe?

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

Once the wrapping paper is unfurled and our waistlines are an inch wider, it is time to settle into real life again. After the indulgence of the holiday season, I am overtaken by an urge to clean out and organize. Apparently, I am not the only one, judging from the abundance of totes and storage items on sale after the new year. One of the first things I am tackling is my clothes closet…again.

I retired from my full-time position over five years ago. At that time, I donated a lot of my nicer dress clothes and had The Big Burn with the threadbare ones. It was a way to mark the changing of that season of my life. I did keep a few of my professional dresses, slacks and jackets, just in case. I am not sure what “just in case” was going to be. Maybe it was a way of hanging on to that part of my life that I had spent my entire adult years building. Removing these last few professional items from my wardrobe forces me to face the question, “who am I now that I am no longer the nurse, instructor or department director?” Now, five years later, I am ready to release the rest of those items from my wardrobe and consequently release those professional roles that I have been hanging on to. No one said the emotional aspect of retirement was easy, or quick.

Why now? First, those items have been lingering in the back of my closet taking up precious real estate – both physical and mental. Maybe I am finally ready to close that chapter of my life. Or it could be the fact that several of those pieces of clothing are getting very outdated, although… that never stopped me from wearing an item before. If I find something that I really like, I tend to hold on to it forever: a perfect fitting pair of jeans, a super comfy chair or a husband of over 44 years. If I find something I love, I do not trade it in for a newer version. In husbands, that is a wise choice, but in clothing… not so much.

I learned this lesson several years ago when I was teaching at our local college. The faculty would lecture to an auditorium full of nursing students for 3-4 hours at a time. No matter how riveting a lecture on the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac dysrhythmias, after a couple of hours, your mind tends to wander. Students start thinking about what they are making for dinner that night, whether they remembered to let the dog out before they left, or they start evaluating the lecturer’s clothing.

At the end of each semester, faculty open their student evaluations with trepidation. You never know what kind of feedback you are going to get. So, imagine my surprise when a student wrote a lovely compliment and then followed it up with a comment that I needed to dress more modern. Hum… I don’t know, maybe it was that “classic” red wool blazer that my mom passed down to me that I wore for years. It was beautiful and good quality… but perhaps it was a little outdated. So much for timelessness. In a moment of weakness, I shared this wardrobe evaluation with my colleagues. It was worth the humble moment just to enjoy the laughter and jokes that we had over it for years. But, like any feedback, you have to evaluate what you can take from it. I donated the red blazer and a few other items at the end of that semester. Smile.

These final professional clothing items will not make it to the big burn since they are still in pretty nice condition. Instead, they will be donated to a charity.

But I digress. The biggest reason that I am cleaning out my wardrobe after five years into retirement is that I have come to terms with the fact that my wardrobe needs have changed since I retired. I just don’t dress up much anymore. My mainstay items are sweats, joggers, leggings or shorts. Heck, wearing jeans is a dress up day for me now. Two pair of nice slacks are one too many and I rarely wear a dress anymore. Professional dress clothes are just not needed in my new world of retirement.

Benefits of a retirement wardrobe

Once in a while I miss dressing up. I used to enjoy clothes shopping and finding the perfect outfit with jewelry and shoes to match. But for the most part, the benefits of a retirement wardrobe far outweigh that. No more early morning decisions, standing in front of my closet trying to decide what to wear. And I save quite a bit of money by not having to buy dress clothes. When I am clothes shopping, which I rarely do anymore, I don’t even go into the professional dress clothes section. Why bother? I am really enjoying the casual clothes I wear almost every day now. Comfy is my new wardrobe mantra.

So, it is time to weed through my wardrobe and pull out the last of those items that I was saving “just in case” and open up some more space for my life now. Both mental and physical. How has your wardrobe changed since you retired? Are you loving it or do you miss putting on the suit jacket?