If you are on Facebook, you have seen the FB offering of a year in review. Many of my friends have posted theirs. I have not for several reasons. First my posts are few and far between as related to the events in this year. Thus the post would be a distortion. Second sometimes these activities are depressing as it is too easy to compare oneself to others.
What this action reminded me about is this blog I had hoped to follow the year with thoughts and memories of the main events. However, some computer glitches as well as other activities helped me procrastinate too much.
As a result of this year, I have successfully navigated the first year of retirement to my satisfaction. One of the ways it has been satisfying is that I haven't completed everything on my "bucket list." Too many retirees try to achieve everything in the first year. Sometimes this frenzy is necessary if health issues and other changes are forthcoming. For me that wasn't an issue.
Do I still want to go back to work? Meh. This week I put in two hours volunteering at my local public library and felt exhausted. Perhaps what I need to do most is improve my stamina. So far the combination of Social Security and private funds is working. I am enjoying having more control over my time--an irreplaceable aspect of life. My memory of working is willingly selling certain 40+ hours of time each week in return for an agreed upon salary. I sometimes resented having to subordinate personal needs and outside commitments to meet that contract, but not usually as my job was very fulfilling, self motivating, and varied enough to avoid too much monotony. I did resent those who took advantage of others schedules to rearrange them and seldom returned the favor as they were just too busy.
So here we are at the end of the year. As I said once this year was a true adventure. My definition of an adventure is similar to The Hobbit and other stories where people encounter stresses, hardship, new experiences, new friends, chaos, and confusion mixed with much happiness, joy, and celebration. That's it in a nutshell. Through it all, God has been present as He has for all the others who posted their FB accounts. In that light, I can read their accounts and rejoice and mourn with them again as we are encouraged to do in the Bible. I don't have to worry about feeling smug or depressed as I read their accounts. Hmmm. Maybe I'll post mine after all!
More tomorrow as my first resolution is to start posting the second year.
Perhaps the next year will be better.
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