Dear Reader:

Yesterday, Monday morning, I woke up with such a sense of peace and tranquility. I just lay in bed and listened to the birds announcing the new day and then went out to check my flowers. The daffodils are popping up, like popcorn…more each day.

It had, obviously, been a busy weekend so Sunday night it felt good to warm up in the Happy Room, read, and watch a little television. I started thinking how far I had come with my relationship with Sunday evenings. I spent so many Sunday nights (of my adult working life) in dread and foreboding…of having to start back to work the next day.

In fact…by Sunday afternoon the “invisible, but deadly, malaise” would completely consume me…I never felt at ease or relaxed on a Sunday. By Sunday night I was rushing around putting up clothes…checking to see if everyone had something to wear to start the week and praying no one had a project due the next day…resulting in a midnight run to Walmart. (Believe me, it happened more often than I care to recall.)

But now that is all changed. From the moment I retired… Sunday night took on a new image. I don’t rush around in a panic any more trying to get things ready for the week….I read, talk with friends and family, watch a few favorite shows and completely relax. (I have finally broken out of the self-imposed prison of the Sunday Slumps.)

Most Monday mornings…I leisurely wake up and listen to the rest of the world starting another week. I can hear school buses rolling through the neighborhood, screeching brakes on cars driving down school-congested traffic on Highway 17, but, as for me, I roll over and think about a week ahead filled with lunch dates, neighborhood garden talks, strolls around the neighborhood, and I smile.

My favorite part of the day is the time I spend with God working on the blog…I set aside at least a couple of hours and sometimes more…depending on photos and other things that require more time… like research. Most days I get so caught up in my thoughts and memories that I find myself stopping to allow myself time to go back down memory lane.

I have been retired for over a decade now but I still have to pinch myself, in happiness, every morning when I don’t have to get up and rush around to get ready for work.  “For a date, a date, a very important date…I’m late, I’m late…for a very important date.” (There is a reason “dead-lines” are called “dead”…the stress of them can lead you to an early demise.)

I, honestly, can’t believe that I am so lucky today! Like the tortoise in the hare race,  I just kept plodding along, while Lady Luck put me in positions to get higher degrees to put me in the highest level possible before retirement which has come back each month as a wonderful gift…SC Retirement pension.

And as difficult as it has been going through the ups and downs of “little c” these past eight years…medically/financially it bumped my social security up into the highest bracket too. God works in mysterious ways.

So, even though, I am a senior now living off a retirement pension and social security, I have never had it so good. I make more off of these two pensions than I did teaching all those years with my monthly paycheck.

(***And thank goodness for the state health plan that has covered so much of the unbelievably high costs of on-going cancer treatments…the “Lord is good to me.”)

Now when I think back to those crazy, sometimes stressful, Sundays when the children were younger…I see it differently. Sure, it was pretty chaotic…but the piles of laundry, floors waiting to be swept and dishes washed, meant we were blessed to be together as a family and our priority was spending as much time together doing things and less with the futility of house-cleaning with growing children.

So until tomorrow…the greatest prize we can win at the end of a fulfilling career is time. The tortoise won the race of time and today can even outlive humans. Slow and steady and one day, like me, you can linger over breakfast, eat lunch out, take strolls,  work in your garden, write a blog, or take up any hobby of passion…there is a world of peace and serenity awaiting us tortoises…especially appreciated on a Monday morning.

Retirement: When Sunday evenings and Monday mornings become your favorite part of the week.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Look what Honey, Mike and family did as an amazing team in Savannah….50 miles for the MS Challenge Walk….Brandon and Tarshie joined in to help out also. Honey told me she fell and  hurt her knee twice…it was bruised but she kept going. She’s my hero!

Anne received an “Honorable Mention” Award/Recognition for her painting “Hot Tea” at the Summerville Artist Guild…Way to go and Congratulations my talented friend!