W.I.N...

11/27/2011

What is next?  This is the question of the day.  This past week has been extremely an busy time for me.  Thanksgiving preparations took up most of the week, so I am really thinking of tomorrow as the birth of my retirement.  I am thinking I should to make a list of all the little projects and stuff I want to get done around my house, perhaps call it a “Honey Do” or maybe a “Me Do” list.

There are some home projects I have in my mind; of course, some of them have been lost in vastness of my innermost thoughts for nearly six years with absolutely no action taken.  If there is one skill I have honed over the years, it is the ability to procrastinate, and I will probably draw on it to put off making up the list for a while longer.  It might be the smart thing to do given the level of my inate mechanical ability.  I have told a lot of people the first days of my retirement would be spent sitting in my favorite chair doing nothing at all.  Thus far I have not done it.  Even now I am sitting in the lobby of the Hampton Inn in Bridgeport, WV with this contraption sitting on my lap (no wonder it is called a “laptop”) longing to be home doing absolutely nothing at all. Nothing at all!  What a nice thought. 

The Nancy and I enjoy asking young people “What is your dream?” We want them to give it some thought because we find the vast number of our teenagers and young adults have not really thought about a dream job or dream career, much less how they intend to spend the rest of their lives.  We both know we sure did not and were never asked, and I spent the first 39 years of my life not giving it any thought at all. 

We once asked one of our favorite bartenders about her dream, and totally loved her answer.  Once asked, it didn’t take her long to respond.  She simply said “Not to have to do anything.” At first we were taken aback by her answer, thought it unsatisfactory, almost flippant, but the more we reflected over it and talked about it, the more it made sense, perfect sense.

Just to think one might never “have to do anything” is a beautiful thought.  We believe what she was really saying was she wanted to do it all, to do everything but in her time, her way.  Hell, she could be Frank Sinatra.

So the question is “What is Next?” Where do I go from here; what is my plan; what do I have to do?  And the answer is, I don’t have to do anything.  I do not have to plan a thing.  I don’t even have to think about it all.  It will happen, for the universe is unfolding exactly as it should.  I simply need to enjoy what is next.

And that is all I have to say about that…