Routines

It's January 2nd. I'm back at work. Vacation time is over. Every year, on or around December 19th, I leave work for a couple of weeks. Every year I think about all the things I will do during this down time. And, every year, none of it happens. Each year is different but the plans never pan out.

This year Quanah and Erin were with us for a few days as they accomplished the final leg of their return to Portland, OR. It was a joyful Christmas marred by only a hint of the heartache of November. New Years was quiet as it has been for the past few years now. Since the children have grown and mainly gone, we have tucked ourselves in for a warm night of togetherness and watching the excitement of Times Square.

So - Routine number one is accomplished - Holidays are behind us and all the ideas I had for doing this and that have been moved into my agenda for 2008. As I returned to work today I finally accepted the fact that Routine number one is not a practice run for retirement after all. It is, in fact, a time for me to JUST WIND DOWN.

But now I'm back at work and Routine number two has greeted me.

Structure to my days.
The ability to plan and
organize and
prioritize and
follow the plans.

If R#1 is a time to wind down, R#2 is a time to re-rev my engines.

I'm back to Jenny;
back to writing;
back to being open to inspiration.
I'm BACK.

I've finally GOT IT that I will not have a clue about my retirement routine until I RETIRE. There is no such thing as a practice run. So I will simply wait until the time is actually upon me (and no doubt forget this insight and have to remind myself from time to time). Have any of you experienced this. I'd love to read your stories of retirement.

Resolutions? None. Resolutions are meant to be broken. After all they are only more like guidelines anyway (Thank you Jack Sparrow) There is one thing though I am definitely going to do - replace my camera. My Canon is 3 years old with 4 mega pixels. This was excellent 3 years ago but I'm noticing that results are not so satisfying anymore. Perusing the cases at Target have shown me that low end cameras are now starting out at 7.1 mega pixels. Definitely time to upgrade.

And now - for a new addition to my routine.
Here is a post of a historic fact for this day in history.

1947 Mahatma Gandhi begins march for peace in East-Bengali