New Beginnings

My slate is empty. A new year, a new start, a new lifestyle in front of me.

I retired on Friday after working non-stop for the past forty years. I was fortunate to get a full time job mere weeks after graduating from college and haven't stopped since.  Seven places of employment during this time period, countless coworkers-many who are long forgotten, a few indelibly etched in my heart forever, lots of hard work, stress, rewards, frustrations, and laughter all behind me now. Now is the time to discover what it is like to not be an employee but to be free and independent of time clocks, rules, regulations, and others expectations.

This will be a totally new experience that both excites and causes me some trepidation. Always a planner, months ago I began writing lists of things I would like to do. The very first thing on my list is "Slow Down."  My best friend recently told me that I always appear to be rushing to the next thing.  Now is the time to stop, be in the moment, and truly experience what I am doing.

I retired this blog in April 2013, finding that keeping it up was too demanding of what little free time I had. Now is a good time to dust it off and bring it out of retirement as I enter mine. Hopefully I will share how I start filling up my cleared slate with my experiences as I begin this new chapter in my life.

Happy New Year one and all!