Saturday Thoughts (15 Days Post Retirement)

 

Wow! Look. It’s a real Saturday. If I didn’t have a calendar to mark the day off of every day, I would not have a clue of what day of the week it is. And I am perfectly happy about it.

The calendar is not just to track the day of the week. I schedule appointments, lunches, and projects that go on the calendar. I try to only schedule one thing each day, so I am not plunging into a regiment. After years of following a schedule, it feels liberating to come and go as I please and choose what I wish to do in the moment versus a work To Do list that went on forever.

My calendar was empty this morning. I cooked dinner, worked on finances, downloaded medical records from our pre-Medicare health care providers, meditated, cleaned one bathroom (and did all of the chores I have been doing daily for years – like cleaning the cat’s litter box), watched a few episodes of The Closer, texted a few people to check in with them,  looked at Facebook, and here it is 6:00pm and I feel rested and ready to write for a bit.

I saw a meme the other day, it read:

You will always have problems.

Learn to enjoy life while solving them.

I read this and it took awhile before I could identify why these words disturbed me. I think it may be the way it is written. It starts with a negative. My brain ALWAYS wants to write from a positive standpoint. Years of training, perhaps? Meditation lessons I have picked up in recent years? My Pollyannish nature?

The message is good. Everyone has problems (i.e., obstacles, lessons, life events, crap). I even like problems as a test of my ability to find solutions. I suspect that I also struggle with wanting to solve problems for myself and for others to keep life on an even keel. All kinds of words bounce through my head (mostly the voices of parents and other relatives) when faced with a serious life problem:

•       “Someone, somewhere, has worse problems.”
•          “Try not to overthink it. It’s probably not as bad you think.”
•          “You’ll figure it out. You always do.”
•          “You have too much time on your hands. If you stay busy you won’t think about it.”
•          “Some things you can’t fix. Leave it alone.”
•          “Offer help. Nobody wants to feel alone.”
•          “Learn to solve your own problems and don’t burden others.”
•          “Nobody wants to hear you whine about your life.”

I sure do enjoy life. I enjoy the opportunity to learn from problems and mistakes I’ve made while solving problems.