How was your weekend?

Cats do not know what the word
'work' means... we should follow
their example of living. (This is
Maksim, the Russian Blue.*)

Today my friend Carol called and her first question was "How was your weekend?"

I had to stop for a second and think... 'Weekend? What is that?' and then I replied, "Carol, all my weekends run together since I don't have any week days in between anymore. My life is great, I'm loving what I'm doing - or not doing. It's all very good."

For example, this morning I was up with the birds, literally. They tuned up about 4:30 a.m., I got up and looked out the window. "Hmmm, gonna be a nice clear day. I might want to water the berries later." Then I went and made some oatmeal (with blueberries from the store) and a cup of tea.

Back to bed to eat the oatmeal and read a story on my Kindle. Now the sun is really coming up and I'm feeling sleepy again. So I pull the covers over my head and take a nap.

Mallard duck watercolor on 9x9
paper, finished today.

Around 8 a.m. I decide to get up and get ready for my art class. I putter about and grab a jar of jam I made a few days ago to give to my teacher. She likes me already, so I'm not buttering her up or anything. I just appreciate her taking time to give us her knowledge.

Class goes until noon, so I head home again and read some mail, make a nice salad for lunch, but in the process I was reminded that I had four boxes of strawberries that needed to be hulled and frozen.

After a leisurely lunch watching the news (Twitter feed, Facebook and other postings) about the R2AK unpowered race to Alaska up the inland passage, I decide to cut the berries up, eating a few and then getting them into the freezer.

First crop of raspberries from my bushes... easy to grow here.

A trip outside to the freezer reminds me I have raspberries about to be picked and they also need some watering.

So I go and pick two pints of berries, then water them. Now it's 4 p.m. and time for tea. I answer some texts from my daughter about a visit and go for a walk.

Cleopurrtra looking up at the birds
that woke us up earlier today.

In a few hours it will be dark and I'll get my Kindle and another cup of tea, go and sit with a cat as a pillow and my day will be nearly over.

No stress, no loud voices, no demands... following my bliss.

This is what it means to be Retired For Good... and it is good.

* NOTE: Maksim and Cleopurrtra are rescue cats. When I first adopted Max, he was looking for the KGB around every corner, scared of everything. Today he is a relaxed, normal, still-a-bit-shy guy, but very different from the cat I brought home. And some of the credit goes to Cleo who was a 6-month old kitten and still loves to play. She forces Max to join her in her nightly entertainments from time to time and he's learned to love the window seat, too.

These two fur-iners in my life keep me on track so everybody wins.

Following My Bliss

Spring is one of my favorite times of the year.

As of May 14, I will have been totally retired (this time I am pretty sure it is for good, in all ways that could be interpreted) for one month.

"Follow your bliss," is a phrase I had heard but honestly, when you have to get up to go to work and it's still dark (and cold) outside, that was not ever my idea of bliss.

A glacial lake near Mt. Baker, WA, is almost perfectly still this spring day.

Now I can practice following my 'bliss' and I don't really require an alarm clock anymore, but my body seems to know that it's time to get up before it is lunch time.

I potter about making tea and ponder what I will do for the day... there is nothing on the list that HAS to be done.

Go and get eggs?

I can have oatmeal today and maybe I'll get the eggs tomorrow, provided I feel like it.

The real discipline is to stay in a state of joy.

Anything that pulls me off my high flying disc will require a 17 second re-focus... like getting a bill or hearing bad news on TV.

One way I made sure I minimized some bad news was to tell Direct TV I was going away until July... I am liking not having to do more than read a local newspaper once a week to get the essentials.

I converted this color photo to B&W because the heron
was not well colored due to camera and light angles.

The world - my world - has its parameters.

There are two cats who have intense confrontations once in awhile.

The sparrows were fighting last week about ownership of the abandoned birdhouse.

I got word that now that I no longer work full time I have to take my vested IRA account and find another place for it.

Everything is working out for me... as long as I keep my world and my parameters in focus.

Once I start paying attention to something that really has nothing to do with me, I'm back on the hard ground worrying about things I can do nothing about.

It's taken me almost a year to get to this peaceful place.

It's about as close to heaven as I want to be just now.

I'm following my bliss... and it's a great pity that most folks have to get to retirement age to fully experience it.

Children, however, when left to their own devices, are pretty good at doing this.

Emerging ferns look pretty peculiar... but interesting...

I recently listened to my daughter telling her daughter it was time to come and have dinner.

G'daughter was focused on something that was giving her pleasure and she was not interested in eating because that wasn't on the same vibration as what she was doing.

Finally the insistence of her mother's demands brought her down and she came to the table.

But it was not a willing arrival and we all got that message.

I have to say that my daughter is very good at parenting, and it is really not unreasonable that she views eating as a requirement.

And yet, while I have taught my daughter to be responsible, and as a caring parent myself, we all want our children to be well-nourished, sheltered, protected, I am asking myself have we gone too far?

Perhaps some of that nourishment has to come by allowing everyone a way to get food when they want it, water when they want it, shelter when they want it and everything else in that same way.

But dear reader, perhaps you think the world would be in chaos? What is it in now?

This is just a subject for thought... but I must leave and go to my garden... back later!

Viewing a wave through a huge tree on Dungeness Spit, Sequim, WA.