Sunday Sabbath August 9 2015  READJUSTING

RETIREMENT.  READJUSTING.  Two words that are one and the same.  I thought I learned a lot on my trip but perhaps not quite enough.   I’m a do-er.  It is hard for me to sit still, sit down, lie down, or take a moment to do nothing.  And I certainly do not want to take a nap during the day!  Dave and I are opposites.  He informed me of that tonight.  He asked me to remember that Sunday is a day of rest.  Resting to me is working in the kitchen, creating new recipes, cooking, and preparing for the week.  What I need to remember is that I am supposed to be retired and have the rest of the week to do all that.

Well, I don’t feel retired yet because I still have two weddings of which I must finish the post production design.  Only then will I actually be RETIRD!  And even then I will be on call for Meriter Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital and U.W. Children’s Hospital to photograph for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep.  So I’ll still have some work pending until finished and delivered to the client.  But that is not as time consuming, or as stressful as doing a wedding from start to finish.  I’m looking forward to when I will be finished.   Then will come my studio prop sale and converting my studio back into a living area.  Now that will be fun.  Maybe I said this already but I think I am excited about it because we plan to move my small, over crowed library into the larger area!  How awesome will that be!

As I cooked today I gave thought to what Dave had said regarding the fact that for the last 100 years he has worked Monday through Friday and only had weekends to keep up the yard.  He wants to get all the house and yard work accomplished on the week days and have Saturday and Sunday (for me Saturday, for him Sunday) off with no work of any kind.  Hmmm…I think I kind of like that idea.  So we are retired and we are readjusting.  Both of us.  We love being together but just not all the time.

We are going to make a new day to go to Costco.  No more Sunday afternoons with a big cooking day following.  I must admit, I do like my cooking time.  My cousin has told me that I am “obsessed with food” and maybe I am.  I am obsessed with raw, fresh, organic, beautiful veggies and fruits and all the things that can be concocted from them.  I like to touch them, handle them, cut them up, smell them, cook them, look at them, take pictures of them and then eat them.  The eating part of it is good but the fun part is the beauty of handling such exquisitely designed works of art.  Live food is so beautiful!

Life is just beautiful to me.  I’m sometimes sorry I can’t just get over it and take it for granted.  But, I cannot.  Every day is a gift to me from God and I accept it and use it as such.  I never tire of saying thanks to God for all He has given me, all He has done, for who He is, for His love for me, for His grace, for His joy and peace he instills within me daily.  And I especially thank Him for the awe and wonder he has placed in my heart.  I wonder if I will ever grow up.  I certainly hope not.  Sorry sister Velma.  I know you have hoped I would all my life.  But if push came to shove I suppose I just don’t intend to do so.

I don’t know how I got off on the above topic but I guess I’ll leave it in.  Sometimes I write words but don’t publish them for public consumption. Maye I’ll leave this glimpse of me in print.

Today was another wonderful day.  Perhaps my last Sunday to use as a cooking and prep day for the week.  It is my joy to create a harmonious retired household.  I have a book about Sunday Sabbath, Restoring the Rhythm and Rest to You Soul.  I can’t remember if that is the exact title but it is something like that.  I read it years ago and still remember some of the wisdom that the book offered.  I think I shall find the book and quote some of its wisdom for you.  Not today however, as I have earned to be tired with all that I did today.  We did attend church as we do each Sunday, went to Costco afterward, and then home to cook.  I will say that I did rest a bit before I started cooking but only because I am supposed to do so for my surgical recovery.  I have been trying to make that a priority each day.  It is a bit like torture but I think I could get used to it.  I read during that time and it is what I love to do even more than cooking.

I met a new couple at church today.  Stacy and Pat.  Oh dear, maybe it was Tracy and Pat.  Please forgive me for not remembering.  I’ll ask her again next week.  Anyway, she had some interesting wisdom for me.  I asked her if she had some wisdom and she said no.  Then she went on describing why she doesn’t have wisdom, however what she said seemed very wise to me.  I asked her if I could write it in my Blog.  She said yes.  Now the big question is, can I remember the meaning she got across to me.  Here is Pat’s wife’s wisdom:  “I want to have an open mind and not judge people or circumstances.  I want my mind and heart to be accepting of others.”  She said so much more and so much more eloquently than I can quote here.  I didn’t record her and I wished I had because she said it so beautifully.  When our hearts are grounded in Jesus I think that what she told me is exactly what Jesus would want us to do.  Isn’t that what He did with all those He came in contact with?  He accepted each one that came to Him and poured His healing and love over them.  What a better place our world would be if more people followed that example.  We are never to sit in the seat of judgement.  Isn’t it awesome that that is not our job!

It is after 9:00 p.m.  Time to go to bed.  But first, I must write a poem.  There are a lot of poems in me I would like to write but some take more thinking than others and by this time at night my thinking cap has slipped a bit.  So let’s see what I can come up with.  Hey, I have an idea, if you are reading this, go to contact tab on my blog and shoot me an email and give me some suggestions for some upcoming poems.  Just give me a topic, or a sentence or paragraph of what you would like me to TRY to concoct for you.  Sometimes I ask Dave to just give me one word that I could write a poem about.  It is fun to come up with something.  Anyone else out there write poetry?  Send me one.  I’d love to read it.  I actually have an afternoon pending where a new friend and reader is coming over with his family so we can share our poetry with each other.  How awesome is that!  I’ve already read many of his poems and they are wonderful.  It is always best to hear a poem from the lips of he or she that composed it.  It is when the heart and soul of the poem is felt.  I have done poetry recitals in the past and would love to do another one when my life becomes a bit more “routine” and “organized”.  I don’t know for certain if those words are synonymous with me since I have returned from my trip.  My routines of the past seemed to have disappeared.  I’m trying to rediscover the ones that will now work for me. READJUSTMENT!  There’s that word again.

RETIREMENT AND READJUSTMENT

By Kathleen Martens

August 9, 2015

Retirement is just a word

But boy does it mean big things.

Living together twenty four seven

New encounters it brings.

Waking each morn without alarm

Creates a leisurely tone.

And every day is Saturday,

Until the calendar is shown.

Learning to give and to receive

Must be learned all over again.

And learning to know the older other

Is like discovering a new friend.

There is a time of adjustment

Because there are a lot of changes,

And we must stretch ourselves further

To handle the many ranges.

So many new things to think about,

And so many more new choices.

We must realize we two are one

As we respect our separate voices.

Retirement and readjustments,

Two things I look forward to.

It’s as if I’ve been given the gift

Of a life that is wonderfully brand new.

So that’s my final answer and I’m sticking to it!

Goodnight!  10:12 p.m.