Tag: retirement

Posted on

Retirement Surprise Dinner!

It was supposed to be an ordinary day: August 1, my first official day of retirement. At work the previous week before I took the personal days I needed to use or lose, I had asked to simply slip out the door without a party or even a mere cupcake. I’m not one for too much celebration since I like everything to be simple, and I don’t like to be in the spotlight. On my last office day, my husband worked with my friend Janette and sister in law Bethany to arrange to bring the RV up to the parking lot so my friends could wave to me as I drove away to the open road. One week later, he’d asked me to save the evening – like he does if we have a date or something. I figured he was planning to take me to dinner, just the two of us.

I repotted plants all morning while he mowed grass and did the weed eating. And then I came inside into the air conditioned cool and cleaned out the refrigerator. I did that kind of deep cleaning that you do every two or three years where you take all the shelves and drawers out and wash them, then line all the countertops in towels and let it all air dry. Briar was in the shower, and as soon has he was done, I stepped in for my turn to clean up for the evening. I wanted him to go first so I could see what to wear without asking too many questions. Wherever we were going, we were leaving at 5:00.

I chose black pants and a black and white shirt, the sort of outfit that seems to adjust itself to the formality of any occasion. I put on my silver hoop earrings and my beaded bracelet that was a gift from Bethany when my soul Schnauzer Fitz crossed the rainbow bridge this past spring, and the pearl and silver cross necklace from my children. And then, I bottomed it all off with my black Teva TirraTraveler sandals that look like something between a fancy Sunday School shoe with a beaded ring and just as fitting for the beach or kayaking, and the shoes I would choose as my one forever shoe if I could only choose one pair henceforth. I dried my hair, put on some makeup, installed my contact lenses, grabbed my trusty Portland Leather bag, and stepped into the living room.

And there sat my brother, who’d made the trip to surprise me from five hours south. And my sister in law – – and they hugged me and led me outside to see a gift they’d made together, just for me, that was in their cooler in the back of their car. A toasted coconut cream pie. A favorite Costa Rican recipe that they had made together in their own kitchen the night before, knowing it’s my favorite.

It was that kind of moment where there was nothing else in the whole world that would have been more meaningful. Family who’d traveled in with so much else going on in their own lives, who’d stopped their world to make me a pie and bring it so we could sit around with coffee, talk, and share memories.

I was blown away that my husband had planned such a sweet retirement dinner for me. We were going to my favorite Italian restaurant two counties northwest of us, and we were on the way. And there, at a corner way in the back hidden from immediate view, were three of my colleagues I’d met the very first year I came to the county and had joined on adventures outside of work throughout the years ~ all avid readers who love to travel, see shows, and go out to eat. I’d taught their children and we shared some of the happiest and saddest times of the past 20 years of our lives together, from book club discussions to following each other’s favorite travel itineraries to being there when we’d laid loved ones to rest. Here they were to surprise me and surround me on my first day of retirement!

My brother gave a toast, and we talked of life and the living of it. We all clinked glasses and talked deep into the night, sharing our stories of how we met, how we stuck together, and how we’ve laughed along the way …over coconut cream pie and coffee. Clean refrigerator shelves and drawers lined the kitchen as we gathered in our living room after dinner. I glanced out at the freshly repotted plants on the back porch and felt a similar joy deep inside: new fresh earth, still-strong roots, and room to grow and thrive in new directions with the right watering and sunshine.

Toasting

they made me a pie

showed up for my retirement

toasted coconut!

….and toasted retirement, too

in a glass of prosecco!

Posted on

Embarking on Retirement: The Next Journey

Retirement

I’ve found the door

started looking last year

made my way through the room

straightening my files

smoothing my skirt

changing shoes

grabbing my hat and sunglasses

moving toward the portal

reaching, turning, pushing

toward the next chapter

Posted on

VerseLove Day 4: Living Poets

Instructions for Traveling with Living Poets

I’m hosting today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the fourth day of VerseLove to celebrate National Poetry Month. Hop on over there and write with us today! Follow this link.

Inspiration 

I made a commitment to follow more living poets in 2026, and I’ve been on a remarkable journey of discovery ever since.  As a third-year member of The Stafford Challenge, it brings great joy to see a surge of interest in modern poetry! At my father’s funeral in June 2025, I chose a poem from an anthology of living poets to read at his graveside – not one written long ago.  I reached out to the poet to let her know I planned to read it, and I sent her a recorded clip of that reading. Imagine my surprise when, with tears in her eyes, she sent her own recorded message back explaining that it was her own cancer journey that had inspired her deeply moving poem. I hope to meet her in person this summer when I travel to Portland, Oregon.

Joy Sullivan, author of Instructions for Traveling West, is one of the living poets I follow on social media.  Her Substack, Necessary Salt, captivates me with each new post.  I think what I find most enthralling is the sheer glory she finds in everyday moments.  I invite you to go on a living poet journey to find new writers throughout the month.  Use their work to inspire your own, even borrowing their style and a line or two to frame your own poem.  You can find living poets at Teach Living Poets, Poetry Foundation, and by using search engines to discover others. 

Process

I’ve selected a poem by Joy Sullivan to get us acquainted with each other using the title alone: The cashier at the gas station asks me where I’m from.  Here is the poem free to download from Pinterest. 

Choose a person and setting (i.e. cashier at the gas station, pastor at church, mysterious stranger at the bar, waitress at a restaurant, passenger on an airplane, etc.) and introduce yourself.  Title your poem as Joy Sullivan does, and offer us a glimpse into your world.

My Poem

The Soapmaster of Green Willow Soaps asks me where I’m from

so I tell her: an hour south of Atlanta

because no one has ever heard of this place

and besides, these towns are so tiny we all just say

                      Pike County

which is small enough to spit watermelon seeds

across, where the sunsets rival Titian red

when we look over Alabama-way

but what I don’t tell her as I place bars of 

Mountain Mist, Morning Citrus, and Purple Haze

into my arm basket

is that I’m plotting retirement in these mountains

sipping black coffee on my porch

         in the shadows of Blue Ridge 

channeling inner birdsong and crystal-splashing waterfalls

Posted on

To Love a Word

Check out Georgia Heard’s Substack for monthly writing calendars that work for both children and adults. Her February Valentine Mini Writing Calendar, inspires us to fall in love with the everyday. Day 5 asks us to fall in love with love with a word, one that feels good to say, then to write it down and let it lead.

Since my One Little Word of 2026 is Onward, I’m choosing it today.

Onward

onward: mountains call ~

fresh, clean air…..majestic views

…..babbling creeks….ONWARD!

Posted on

What are you Waiting For?

This month, I continue writing posts from prompts in the Writing Down the Bones Card Deck by Natalie Goldberg, shared with me by my friend Barb Edler of Iowa. I’m continuing this month so that I can experience the entire deck of prompts. Today’s prompt asks the question, “What are you Waiting For?”

Today I offer you a tricube. It’s three stanzas of three lines with 3 syllables.

Let’s Just Be Real

I’m waiting

to retire

next chapters

exciting

relaxing

traveling

reading books

in sweatpants

until noon

Posted on

My Retirement List 41-50

Photo by Filipp Romanovski on Pexels.com

I’m taking the week to write list poems of all the things I’ll do when I retire. They say we should never retire from something, always to something. So I’ll retire to some work and some play, but I want to steer the wheel and throw away the clock. This is day 5 of 5 that I’ll list ten things I’ll do when I am officially off contract for life.

First, a review of the previous days:

  1. I’ll write into the day.
  2. I’ll visit the library twice a week to check out new books.
  3. I’ll read into the evening by the fire.
  4. I’ll shop at the farmer’s market for fresh fruits and vegetables.
  5. I’ll cook things fresh-grown and scrubbed clean.
  6. I’ll take morning walks with the dogs, strolling instead of hurrying.
  7. I’ll make pictures and put them on calendars and notecards.
  8. I’ll pick wildflowers.
  9. I’ll put the picked flowers in the flower press.
  10. I’ll make bookmarks with my pressed flowers.
  11. I’ll savor my coffee, linger longer before showering.
  12. I’ll meet friends for lunch.
  13. I’ll design patterned rag quilts.
  14. I’ll cut flannel quilt squares and stitch them in rows.
  15. I’ll go to sleep when it’s dark and awaken when it’s light.
  16. I’ll wash my dishes by hand in warm water with fragrant dish soap.
  17. I’ll bake fresh, healthy muffins for breakfast.
  18. I’ll volunteer to drive someone to a doctor’s visit.
  19. I’ll make a big pot of soup every few weeks to freeze and give to shut-ins.
  20. I’ll pick my own apples in North Georgia.

21. I’ll take more impromptu personal field trips to satisfy my curious adventure spells.

22. I’ll coordinate my wardrobe down to the kind where all the tops match all the bottoms and all the outfits have three shoe possibilities – and live more simply.

23. I’ll go on writing crawls, writing in first one place and then the next through the day.

24. I’ll attend more book festivals near me and listen to more regional authors speak.

25. I’ll sit in Starbucks and write just for the crooner music and the perfectly-lit ambience.

26. I’ll carry only a small crossbody bag with my driver’s license, some money, and a tube of Candy Cane chapstick that I buy by the box.

27. I’ll sit on my front porch and pray.

28. I’ll learn more about making salves and tinctures, and take a hobby class on it.

29. I’ll wrap all my wine bottles with twine to create vases and fill them with wildflowers and leave them on random doorsteps where they don’t have Ring cameras to catch me.

30. I’ll take more slow country drives at sunset to see the sun sinking below the fenced cattle meadows.

31. I’ll choose the matinee movies on cold, rainy days and take a blanket to the theater.

32. I’ll read more travel genre books and go to places my feet may never actually walk.

33. I’ll spend more time grooming my dogs with glove brushes because they love it when I place them in my lap and give them the brush glove massage.

34. I’ll spend a few hours each week one morning chopping vegetables and fruits to go in plastic tubs for easier use in omelets and soups and snacks and dinners.

35. I’ll take more writing cabin excursions and map my route on Roadtrippers.

36. I’ll hang my tree hammock in the afternoon shade and read until dusk.

37. I’ll stroll through the aquarium and take the time to really see what I’m looking at, and spend more time watching my favorite critters (the otters) play.

38. I’ll read more blogs.

39. I’ll listen to more podcasts.

40. I’ll sit in silence more, savoring its goldenness.

And now today’s:

41. I’ll take longer showers and make them my prayer time.

42. I’ll do more bird counts.

43. I’ll piddle.

44. I’ll leave the television off – as I have always done.

45. I’ll minimize the social media scroll.

46. I’ll teach my grandchildren to make homemade ice cream.

47. I’ll read more picture books.

48. I’ll eat more charcuterie-style dinners.

49. I’ll write the memories of old photographs.

50. I’ll remember that while I have the opportunity to do more, it’s okay to do less.

Posted on

My Retirement List 31-40 of 50

I’m taking the week to write list poems of all the things I’ll do when I retire. They say we should never retire from something, always to something. So I’ll retire to some work and some play, but I want to steer the wheel and throw away the clock. This is day 4 of 5 that I’ll list ten things I’ll do when I am officially off contract for life.

First, a review of the previous days:

  1. I’ll write into the day.
  2. I’ll visit the library twice a week to check out new books.
  3. I’ll read into the evening, dogs snuggled in my lap by the fire.
  4. I’ll shop at the farmer’s market for fresh fruits and vegetables.
  5. I’ll cook things fresh-grown and scrubbed clean.
  6. I’ll take morning walks with the dogs, strolling instead of hurrying.
  7. I’ll make pictures and put them on calendars and notecards.
  8. I’ll pick wildflowers.
  9. I’ll put the picked flowers in the flower press.
  10. I’ll make bookmarks with my pressed flowers.
  11. I’ll savor my coffee, linger longer before showering.
  12. I’ll meet friends for lunch.
  13. I’ll design patterned rag quilts.
  14. I’ll cut flannel quilt squares and stitch them in rows.
  15. I’ll go to sleep when it’s dark and awaken when it’s light.
  16. I’ll wash my dishes by hand in warm water with fragrant dish soap – and blow the bubbles.
  17. I’ll bake fresh, healthy muffins for breakfast.
  18. I’ll volunteer to drive someone to a doctor’s visit.
  19. I’ll make a big pot of soup every few weeks to freeze and give to shut-ins.
  20. I’ll pick my own apples in North Georgia.
  21. I’ll take more impromptu personal field trips to satisfy my curious adventure spells.

22. I’ll coordinate my wardrobe down to the kind where all the tops match all the bottoms and all the outfits have three shoe possibilities for my minimal approach – and live more simply.

23. I’ll go on writing crawls, writing in first one place and then the next through the day.

24. I’ll attend more book festivals near me and listen to more regional authors speak.

25. I’ll sit in Starbucks and write just for the crooner music and the perfectly-lit ambience…oh, and the coffee.

26. I’ll carry only a small Travelon crossbody bag with my driver’s license, some money, and a tube of Candy Cane chapstick that I buy by the box.

27. I’ll sit on my front porch and pray.

28. I’ll learn more about making salves and tinctures, and take a hobby class on it.

29. I’ll wrap all my wine bottles with twine to create vases and fill them with wildflowers and leave them on random doorsteps where they don’t have Ring cameras to catch me.

30. I’ll take more slow country drives at sunset to see the sun sinking below the fenced cattle meadows.

And now for today’s list:

31. I’ll choose to see matinee movies on cold days and take a blanket to the theater.

32. I’ll read more travel genre books and go to places my feet may never actually walk.

33. I’ll spend more time grooming my dogs with glove brushes because they love it when I place them in my lap and give them the brush glove massage.

34. I’ll spend a few hours each week one morning chopping vegetables and fruits to go in plastic tubs for easier use in omelets and soups and snacks and dinners.

35. I’ll take more writing cabin excursions and map my route on Roadtrippers.

36. I’ll hang my tree hammock in the afternoon shade and read until dusk.

37. I’ll stroll through the aquarium and take the time to really see what I’m looking at, and spend more time watching my favorite critters (the otters) play.

38. I’ll read more blogs.

39. I’ll listen to more podcasts.

40. I’ll sit in silence more, savoring its goldenness.

Posted on

My Retirement List 21-30 of 50

Photo by Steven Hylands on Pexels.com

I’m taking the week to write list poems of all the things I’ll do when I retire. They say we should never retire from something, always to something. So I’ll retire to some work and some play, but I want to steer the wheel and throw away the clock. This is day 3 of 5 that I’ll list ten things I’ll do when I am officially off contract for life.

First, a review of the past two days:

  1. I’ll write into the day.
  2. I’ll visit the library twice a week to check out new books.
  3. I’ll read into the evening by the fire, dogs in my lap.
  4. I’ll shop at the farmer’s market for fresh fruits and vegetables.
  5. I’ll cook things fresh-grown and scrubbed clean.
  6. I’ll take morning walks with the dogs, strolling instead of hurrying.
  7. I’ll make pictures and put them on calendars and notecards.
  8. I’ll pick wildflowers.
  9. I’ll put the picked flowers in the flower press.
  10. I’ll make bookmarks with my pressed flowers.
  11. I’ll savor my coffee, linger longer before showering.
  12. I’ll meet friends for lunch.
  13. I’ll design patterned rag quilts.
  14. I’ll cut flannel quilt squares and stitch them in rows.
  15. I’ll go to sleep when it’s dark and awaken when it’s light.
  16. I’ll wash my dishes by hand in warm water with fragrant dish soap.
  17. I’ll bake fresh, healthy muffins for breakfast.
  18. I’ll volunteer to drive someone to a doctor’s visit.
  19. I’ll make a big pot of soup every few weeks to freeze and give to shut-ins.
  20. I’ll pick my own apples in North Georgia.

And now today’s list:

21. I’ll take more impromptu personal field trips to satisfy my curious adventure spells.

22. I’ll coordinate my wardrobe down to the kind where all the tops match all the bottoms and all the outfits have three shoe possibilities – and pretty much ditch the rest to live more simply.

23. I’ll go on writing crawls, writing in first one place and then the next through the day.

24. I’ll attend more book festivals near me and listen to more regional authors speak.

25. I’ll sit in Starbucks and write just for the crooner music and the perfectly-lit ambience.

26. I’ll carry only a small crossbody bag with my driver’s license, some money, and a tube of Candy Cane chapstick that I buy by the box.

27. I’ll sit on my front porch and pray.

28. I’ll learn more about making salves and tinctures, and take a hobby class on it.

29. I’ll wrap all my wine bottles with twine to create vases and fill them with wildflowers and leave them on random doorsteps where they don’t have Ring cameras to catch me.

30. I’ll take more slow country drives at sunset to see the sun sinking below the fenced cattle meadows.

Posted on

My Retirement List: 11-20 of 50

I’m taking the week to write list poems of all the things I’ll do when I retire. They say we should never retire from something, but instead always to something. So I’ll retire to some work and some play, but I want to steer my own wheel and throw away the clock. Today is day two of five days that I’ll list ten things I’ll do when I am officially off contract for life.

First, a review of yesterday’s list:

  1. I’ll write into the day.
  2. I’ll visit the library twice a week to check out new books.
  3. I’ll read into the evening by the fire, dogs in my lap..
  4. I’ll shop at the farmer’s market for fresh fruits and vegetables.
  5. I’ll cook things fresh-grown and scrubbed clean.
  6. I’ll take morning walks with the dogs, strolling instead of hurrying.
  7. I’ll make pictures and put them on calendars and notecards.
  8. I’ll pick wildflowers.
  9. I’ll put the picked flowers in the flower press.
  10. I’ll make bookmarks with my pressed flowers.

And now for today’s list:

11. I’ll savor my coffee, linger longer before showering.

12. I’ll meet friends for lunch.

13. I’ll design patterned rag quilts.

14. I’ll cut flannel quilt squares and stitch them in rows.

15. I’ll go to sleep when it’s dark and awaken when it’s light.

16. I’ll wash my dishes by hand in warm water with fragrant dish soap and blow the bubbles.

17. I’ll bake fresh, healthy muffins with bananas and chia and flax seeds for breakfast.

18. I’ll volunteer to drive someone to a doctor’s visit each week because I understand the village we all need.

19. I’ll make a big pot of soup every few weeks to freeze and give to chemotherapy shut-ins.

20. I’ll pick my own apples in North Georgia.

What are your favorite things about retirement?

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers at Slice of Life
Posted on

My Retirement List 1-10 of 50

I’m taking the week to write list poems of all the things I’ll do when I retire. They say we should never retire from something, but instead always to something. So I’ll retire to some work and some play, but I want to steer my own wheel and throw away the clock once I retire. Starting today, for five days, I’ll list ten things a day that I’ll do when I am officially off contract.

  1. I’ll write into the day.
  2. I’ll visit the library twice a week to check out new books.
  3. I’ll read into the evening by the fire, dogs in my lap.
  4. I’ll shop at the farmer’s market for fresh fruits and vegetables.
  5. I’ll cook things fresh-grown and scrubbed clean.
  6. I’ll take morning walks with the dogs, strolling instead of hurrying.
  7. I’ll make pictures and put them on calendars and notecards.
  8. I’ll pick wildflowers.
  9. I’ll put the picked flowers in the flower press.
  10. I’ll make bookmarks with my pressed flowers.