Keeping Score

It was a nice coincidence this morning that my inspirational emails were both about similar thing.  Motives and Keeping Score.  Maybe the true coincidence is timing.

Spending a lot of time with family can leave one feeling a lot of emotions.  I myself feel a lot of emotions.  Esp this year.  Maybe because we are retired and i do not have the distractions of work and career.  Maybe because I always miss my mom during the holidays.  Maybe because of the evolution of social media.  It is easy to fall into the pattern of comparing oneself.  One of my friends calls it comparing my insides to others outsides.  I suppose I still do that.  Its probably human nature.  I have some friends who are fully involved in social media.  I have some friends who fervently avoid it.  I try to keep a happy medium.  Enjoy the keeping in touch aspect, follow some bloggers and fashion instagrams, connecting with others I might not otherwise, seeing peoples families grow up.  Some groups on Facebook that I get a lot of inspiration from.  But avoid the negative pitfalls...There are a lot of them:  comparison, gossip, judgment, fakeness, superficiality, time wasting...not to mention the things I might be accomplishing if I were not on social media.  But I do find myself having much more free time now...And actually I am on social media less often that when I was bored at work all day.

Anyway, back to the score keeping.  It basically goes to the hard of one's motives.  The gift giving aspect of Christmas is very much deserving of at least a consideration of our motives.  That is an entire separate discussion.  I went to Silver Dollar City with a friend and her mom and sister Thursday.  It was really nice.  We walked around and looked at the shops and went to a musical.  Then we took in the lights and the lights were fantastic!  I got to watch a bit of glass blowing and pottery spinning.  I loved it.  Just the drive alone was breathtaking!  I also enjoyed the company and conversation.  My friends' mom commented that her neighbor brings them lost of baked treats.  And if they take her something, she immediately gives something in return.  I know a couple of relatives like that.  I think I am a little like that.  It is positive, I want to do nice things for others, esp when they have done something for me.  But the real reason we do for others is because that is what love is.  I will not really change my attitude toward this, but I will be mindful of my motives and most importantly, not expect anything back.

Many things are changing now that we are retired.  One of those things is plenty of time for reflection.  This time of the year I seem to take some time to reflect more.  It will be interesting to see how this is New Years time goes now that I am less busy.  I think the big difference is that I am looking forward to a new year more than ever.  I am looking forward to doing more things with DH.  Big things like travel and new interests, but even just fine tuning our day to day routine. 
He is gone all weekend hunting and I really miss him.  No deer yet, but he is going to stay until Monday if he still has not gotten one.  I want him to enjoy himself, but I don't really want another deer.  One is plenty.  I guess we will just be generous if he gets another.  He does want to be home to ring in the New Year with his baby.  Until then, we are limited to sending emails and PM (on social media - how ironic!)
Hope you all are having a great weekend.  Are you thinking of the New Year?  Any big plans?  Small plans?  Mindfulness or intentions?  I usually pick a word.  Mine is "receive".  I chose a very passive word intentionally.  I am changing already!

Intentions, I is for

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/?m=1
I used to acquire more and more I think out of boredom and just for entertainment.  I realized that this was not making me happy (in fact, just the opposite) and so I hope to learn more about what does make me happy and strip away detractions.  From now on, my purchasing will be much more intentional.  How I spend any resources...time, energy as well as money. 
Today I intend to shore up my priorities and focus on people and experiences...not stuff.  The other day DH and I were looking for a place the DH used to know of where one could sell coins/collections.  The man must have retired or moved...we were going to find a little place to get lunch.  We just stopped and ran into this little place and it was charming.  I told him I wanted to get back in touch with the spontaneous side - an intention to be spontaneous?  This seems contrary, but not really.  I think because spontaneity reflects more lighthearted unstructured approach to our time and our lives and less stringent attention to "stuff". 
Have a wonderful Tuesday!

HNY!

This is a special year for me.  This year my DGM made it through an illness and hospital stay just after her 98th bday.  I turned 50 this year and my DH is retiring next year, making 2017 our last full year (& last winter) in this city/state.  We celebrated our 10 year amniversary and 10 years in this house.  It has been awesome, we love our house.  However, we are ready to downsize.

In 2018, i am going to try to stop saying downsize and say rightsize.  I am not into making resolutions to feel bad about not keeping, but I am into sharpening and focusing my intentions.  There is a lot of power into writing down our goals. 

My word next year is "abide".  As we move toward a huge life transition, I want to abide in the present.  I also want to abide in whatever I experience, not tune out with distractions.  But most of all, I have been learning in church to "abide" with Christ in my daily life.

I hope you feel joy and hope as you abide in 2018!  Thank you for stopping by.

Gotta start somewhere...

So I have been fascinated with the process of a blog for several years.  My favorite blogs to read are ones where people just talk about life.  I especially like when one is blogging for an event or change.  So, rather than regale my friends and family into listening to my stories over and over about how much joy I am getting from reducing my clutter and getting ready to move 225 miles away (this bring sadness to family and friends I will be moving away from), I thought I would talk to the blogosphere and see if I can meet some like-minded folks out there.

Plus, I have a really teadious job that gives me sometimes several days with not much to do, followed by furious crunch time work.  Very hard to find a balance.  I probably should have called my blog Finding Balance, but that would suggest much more zen type of content, which I probably would fall wearily short.

My husband is getting ready to retire in 10 months.  283 days, 6 hours, 15 minutes and 25 seconds...give or take.  Who's counting?  Part of what attracted me to this idea is the intention to write through this process and see if I was able to, wanted to, keep this up for the 10 months.  Another part of me wants to see what writing is like since I will have a lot of free time (God willing) once we retire and move.  My husband is a little older than I am, so I am not sure I will totally retire or work a 3rd career (I have already been through 2 careers, not counting all the work/jobs I did since I was 12 years old up until I graduated from college).  I think I am a bit too young, restless, impatient, spendthrifty...scared, OK scared is a fair word.  I am a bit scared of what this will bring.  Some of my fear is about money, but about equally scarey is what my life will look like...will I like myself?  Will I feel I am accomplishing enough?  Will I?...what if?...what about?...

I have learned that journaling is a good thing.  But I want more than just journaling.  I want to get to know others out there who are going through something, needing a bit of contact.  Not only are we relocating...we are moving to a very small town from a decent sized Midwestern city.  We are going south about 225 miles to another state.  We want it a bit warmer (me, not too warm).  I have lived in this state before, in another life.  Well not really, but I lived there over 20 years ago.  I liked it there very much, but I was younger and single and restless and in career-mode. 
I am not really scared about the small town part, I grew up in a REALLY small town.  My husband has never lived in another state.  But he and I are both sick of the city and sick of the pace and sick of having to get out and get around in the cold. 

More tomorrow, I hope.  We'll see how this