Retirement can be lazy, sluggish or whirly
Published 12:00 am Saturday, December 19, 2015
I spend some days in a whirl. Other days I sleep later than I mean to. Then I find myself behind in whatever I try to do. And then other days, I cannot seem to get going from the minute my feet hit the floor. All of a sudden, there I am sprawled in my recliner with a book in my hand reading or surfing the TV for an old favorite television show. I might snooze a bit. As long as I bury myself in what I read or watch on television, I forget that I need to be up and busy in the house.
Do I feel guilty? Maybe a little. Then I remember how I looked forward to retirement so I would have the freedom for those very things. Besides, those lazy days also please my dog, Little Girl, the most. As soon as I land in the recliner, she invites herself up to snuggle next to me. It is pleasant with her warm little body scrunched between my hip and the arm of the chair.
Those whirly days, though, are the ones when I accomplish things, like cooking a stew, or soup, or peas in my aged, non-electric pressure cooker. Or maybe I even get the urge to roll out canned biscuit dough and spoon in some dried apples to make my family’s favorite fried apple pies. I gather all the newspapers, magazines, and junk mail piled on the table next to my recliner for recycling. Then I add the rest that somehow show up in the kitchen.
Occasionally I tackle the bedroom. I hang up clothes I have tossed in a chair or put away miscellaneous items that litter the top of my dresser. If I really feel energetic, I move books stacked almost as high as my head on a bedside table. All I have to do then is hunt a place to relocate them. At a house like mine, running over with books, that is a challenge.
On whirly days I will most likely plunge into straightening things in the bedroom I call my office. I wonder if some unseen thing or person sneaks into my office behind my back to scatter bills, papers, and books from my desk to the bed and every place in between. I feel so good when I get everything back in place, even if it only stays orderly a day or two. That desk can hold some amazing surprises. I search frantically for a bill I might have forgotten to pay. What if it is due today or the next? Or the desk might be where I left a credit card I missed from my billfold when I reached for it at the super market. To my amazement, numerous important misplaced items surface on my desk. It is reason to breathe a sigh of relief.
I thank my Lord for blessing me each day, whether they turn out lazy, sluggish or whirly.