And Now It Begins

OK, I've worked the last day of the job, complete with a Retirement Celebration that had me not really doing any work all afternoon. My boss and my replacement kept folks checked in and out, etc., while I visited with my many friends as we partook of chocolate cake, cookies, crackers and cheese ball, fruit bowl, sandwiches, and punch. I'm not sure the Library will ever be the same again.

Everyone asks: What am I going to do now? The all-important question. The answer was usually a variation of "I'm going to concentrate on my bucket list!" You know, the list of things you want to do and get done while you're still here. High in the list is publishing another book, which entails getting out and about locally and road trips not so locally, to take photos and get inspiration for more stories for said book. More immediately, I wanted to get regular with posting on this blog, and getting it promoted so folks will see it and read, and perhaps get some guidance for their own life.

I had thought of trying to find a website where I could create an online version of the newsletter I published for 11 years, "Livin' on the Bay." I'm still searching for such. I may have to clear some cobwebs out of the head before I can grasp the processes, which is not to say I can't do it.

More frequent and longer visits to my family and friends in Kansas is also high on the list. Then there are friends in Seattle, Washington, Alamagordo, NM, Oklahoma, as well as Texas, that I want to spend time with. I'm sure if I study on it, I can figure out how to do it, financially as well as physically.

Have you sat down and made a list of things you would like to accomplish? Actually made a list? I discovered years ago how it important it was to do that. And if you can put some projected date on it, it helps also. You may not get everything done, or by the specified time, but I guarantee you will get more finished than if you had not made the list! It's positively weird how it works. A favorite quote from somewhere went something like this: Make goals! You may not achieve all of them, but you'll get more done than if you had not made the goal.

Another quote I've always liked: "If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else."--Yogi Berra. This resonates with me for sure. I think about road trips I've taken. If you want to get some particular place, you have to have a map or instructions about how to get there. You have to know where you are going. If you're just rambling around, sight-seeing, it's not so important to know the end destination, but I've never thought that was a good ploy for life.

Here are additional quotes that have helped me think more clearly about what I wanted to achieve, what I wanted to BE, in my life:

"What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals." - Zig Zigler

"You don't get to choose how you're going to die, or when. You can decide how you're going to live now." - Joan Baez

"Picture yourself vividly as winning and that alone will contribute immeasurably to success. Great living starts with a picture, held in your imagination, of what you would like to do or be." - Harry Emerson Fosdick.

In the above quote is the essence of visualization I learned about years ago. The trick is to make your subconscious believe what you wish to be or achieve. If your subconscious believes you live by the sea with palm trees, that must become the reality. You most likely will not realize at the time that what is happening is guiding you to that goal!

Living by the sea with palm trees was my desire all those years ago when, as a divorced lady working for a living, I decided to try out the visualization thing. There was absolutely no way, I thought, that I would ever be able to afford living by "big water." But what the heck, it certainly did not hurt to try out the technique. As instructed, every day when I got up, I would look in the bathroom mirror (plastered with photos & depictions of palm trees, as were the fridge, my cubicle at work, in the car) and say with emotion and conviction, "I live by the sea with palm trees." Co-workers kidded me about my obsession with palm trees! They gave me presents of mugs, suncatchers, and so on, with palm trees. Little did they know they were adding to the fuel!

Along those 15 or so years, things happened that, at the time, seemed to not be good, such as a repossessed mobile home. A murder in front of the apartment I lived in. Being attacked as I was returning to my home in the country from the night shift. Looking back, I can see how these and other events steered me in directions that ultimately paved the way, 13 years ago, to retire from 29 years as a typesetter and move to Seadrift, Texas with life-long friends. As most of you know, I now live two blocks from San Antonio Bay, with two gigantic palm trees in my front yard.

Of course all this is triggered by retiring, once again, and the need to plot my course is upon me. I took up a series of part-time jobs to pay for a home with a four-year mortgage (only in Seadrift!) which led to the position at the Seadrift Library. It's been a rewarding eight and a half years, but time to concentrate on other things. I sincerely hope I've got you thinking about your own course of life! Let's get together and share ideas, and support each other in whatever it is we decide to do. That's the pertinent phrase: WE DECIDE! See you around. CJ