Joy

For the second morning in a row, I've woke up happy to be alive - looking forward to the day ahead.  I've been reading "The Book of Joy", a little bit each night before I fall asleep. If you haven't heard of it, the book is co-written by Douglas Abrams, through interviews and hanging out with the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, during a weeklong birthday celebration/gathering. It isn't religious, but spiritual.  The chapters are very short, powerful, and lead me to contemplate what my purpose is here on earth. I've felt a subtle shift in my attitude toward life that is mostly unexplained, unless I give this book some of the credit. I didn't realize I had been looking for joy, until it found me.

December has been my most dreaded month for the past ten years.  I've fought depression, relived the saddest year of my life and frankly felt pretty darn sorry for myself. (You can read about some of that year here) Each December brought with it the promise of plenty of sweet treats to feed my weepy spirit and I alternated between compulsively eating sugar laden goodies and hating myself throughout - especially when my current favorite jeans refused to zip, despite laying on my back on the bed, struggling. I bought progressively larger sizes of cheerful holiday tops to hide my sad sugar addiction.

No more.

The joy I feel at the beginning of this December lies partially in a trimmer body, not thin, but 30 pounds lighter than last December. Having to buy new jeans that actually stay up - instead of falling off - makes me joyful in a way that I can see.  Being able to bend over, from a standing position, to tie and untie my shoes gives me pleasure. Purging my closet and dresser of dozens of items too large, and donating to a homeless shelter, increased my joy. At the bank I was waited on by a former student who exclaimed as she literally ran around the counter to give me a hug, "Mrs. Babbitt!  I didn't recognize you!  You look ten years younger than you did when I was in your class!" I'm not lying - Maddie gave this old gal some real joy!

I am also taking steps toward giving up a life long dream of buying and selling antiques and treasures, after finding out that the workload exceeds the benefits! I wrote briefly about the beginnings of that adventure here. I'm now working to move as much from my garage to my space downtown as possible, with hopes of great sales.  I will move what is left back to my garage on December 31. I'll either sell or donate whatever I decide not to keep. Just knowing I have an end date makes me happy.  It was fun, at times, but not quite enough fun, or profit, to want to continue.

Yet the greatest joy lies inside me this morning - writing and awaiting my daily 7 AM brisk walk with my neighbor and her dog, looking forward to the fresh air, the mostly sleepy and sullen middle schoolers we pass each morning, waiting for their bus. There's a smile on my face, leftover from the couple hours I spent yesterday with several retired teachers at the nearby IHOP, as we joyously ate  from the senior menu, laughingly shared our adventures during the previous month, and attempted to fix the current political chaos. 

In all areas of my life - spiritually, physically, emotionally - I am grateful that joy has found me. Retirement is the best, and due to strategic financial planning, we are comfortably living much the same as we did while working. In the past year we have crossed eleven National Parks off our bucket list, with spring plans to visit a few more. Both daughters are doing well, enjoying their teaching assignments, and their significant others, and their cats. Chris' family continues to grow, and there will be another great-granddaughter around December 13th. 

I set a goal in October to return to blogging and post at least once per month. These posts will mostly be picture prompts from my childhood, and fictionalized responses - with what truth I can remember woven in. Here is October, and November posts. It is my hope that I will move toward publishing some of the writing I do each morning in my journal, which is where today's post came from. 

I have been found by joy, and life is good.

Hello!

This morning I woke with a burning desire to write - don't ask where that idea came from! I've been writing, pretty much daily, for quite some time, but not blogging.  I guess I needed a break from being "out there" - that has been going on for ages it seems.

The things I've been journaling about aren't exactly things I want to put out for public consumption, so I really had to think about just what I was being propelled to write about.  So, this blog may meander a bit . . . fair warning!

New Adventures in Retirement

Retirement is the cat's pajamas - the best.  There are still never enough hours in a day, I am still not reading as much as I wanted, and the house is still just as jumbled and chaotic as always.  This doesn't seem to matter one bit to me.  My retirement motto is a simple one:

I'm taking it to heart.  At least one thing . . . every day. Sometimes more; sometimes a lot more!

Since retirement, I have found myself becoming a bonafide wheeler dealer in antiques, vintage, shabby chic, and anything else I find that I think someone else might like.  I started with a small "window" shelf unit in a nearby antique shop, added a small space at another antique shop, then moved up to a larger space and dropped the "window" as I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

As I have been a collector forever, having the possible good fortune (or not) of being born into a family of savers, packrats and collectors of just about anything that might be interesting, this whole endeavor is extremely satisfying.  It's like being given a green light to hit every estate, garage and moving sale with a vengeance - I am continually on the lookout for "good stuff".

I've found quite a lot.  The garage is full. And, sometimes I find stuff I don't really want to sell - big surprise.

A mixture of "finders keepers" and items already owned.

It's been keeping me busy, although I have arrived at a place where I don't scan Craig's list every day, nor do I go to sales every weekend.  There's only so much room in the garage!

Travels

Recently my husband and I took a mini trip up to Victoria, BC via the Clipper from Seattle.  We went with my aunt and uncle (who are close to my age) and had a fabulous time being tourists.  We started with a fun bus ride out to the Butchart Gardens, where the blooms were spring spectacular, and I bought way too many flower seeds.  (However, they are all planted with hopes for a smidgen of lucky blooms in the not too distant future.) 

My aunt and I talked our husbands into tea at the Empress Hotel, which was the first time for all of us, and truly a delightful treat! David was such a good sport, and posed while drinking his cup of tea! 

One daughter tells me this is her new favorite photo of her dad. :)
I think it's the raised pinky!

We spent one morning exploring the superb BC Museum of History!  We all could have spent many more hours, as it was huge and Smithsonian-like, and absolutely one of the best I've ever visited. Each display was amazingly life-like and very detailed. Very impressed!

One of the last things we did was to watch a movie about our wonderful National Parks in 3-D at the IMAX theater.  As we are in the midst of planning our first major road trip in retirement to Utah, this was a good way to generate even more enthusiasm - and I was already pretty darn enthusiastic about this trip!  We'll be visiting seven of our National Parks, and I am giddy with excitement to hit the road.

Pepper

So much of life is making me happy these days - opportunities to travel, seeking vintage and antique stuff, spending time with family, and my sweet rescue kitty, Pepper.

She's a bit disgruntled as I woke her from a nap to take a picture!

Pepper is my grief slayer - A couple months after my Dad died, in January 2015, I came home from work and told my husband, "I need a cat!"  My husband doesn't like cats, so he wasn't too thrilled with my demand.  Fortunately, our daughter was home and she agreed with me, so he grudgingly gave in.  Jess and I began to search in earnest, but there were a few criteria that needed to be met. First, this cat would have to be grey, or black and white, as it's name was going to be "Pepper", my dad's nickname. Second, it would have to be sociable, get along with other cats (for when our youngest daughter and her cat Cleo were visiting) be holdable and of course, purr.  

One day I was reading the "available cats" section in the paper and there she was!  I fell in love with the photo and called to make an appointment to meet her.  Somehow our wires got crossed, and when we went to the shelter where this cat was being kept, she wasn't there.  The worker attempted to interest us in some other cats in residence, and actually tried to discourage us by saying "my" cat wasn't very sociable and didn't like other cats.  I was undeterred, and discovered that she was "off site" but would be part of an adoption fair at Petco later in the afternoon.  We waited, then drove over to meet her.

She came right over to us; she let us hold her; she purred - she was perfect!  We learned that she had been found abandoned, locked in a shed a few days before Christmas, 2014.  It was then March - it had taken several weeks to nurse her back to health.  There was no doubt in my mind that this was my Pepper.

After spending a good amount of money on a carrying case, food, toys, litter, scratching post, and collar, we drove home.  She explored all the highest places first.

I don't know how she does it - she doesn't use the counter to get up on the fridge!

She is a short, furry labrador! Pepper greets everyone who comes to the house, with her tail wagging. (He tail wags constantly!) She "talks" to us, and always "talks back" with some sort of kitty retort when told to get off the table, or the counter.  She wakes me with a soft paw caressing my cheek if I sleep later than she thinks I should - about 5:15 am! She loves to cuddle on me while I'm reading in bed (this can be kind of a nuisance!) or will come "tell" me it's time to go to bed if she is ready and I'm not!  

Pepper has saved me, given me a reason to smile, made me laugh daily and filled my world with a kind of love I haven't known since I was a little girl.  (Way different than people love - I'm loved by a few of those critters, too!)

So, I'm happy today.  Happy to be alive, to be retired, to have written a blog post.  This morning I put up and cleaned off my clothesline, so I'm ready to hang clothes outside tomorrow.  And now, I'm going to get back to sewing on a log cabin quilt I'm making for my daughter and her husband for their first anniversary in July.  

It's good to be happy!