Age-related

 Now that I am retired, I have time to spend with my husband, work in the garden, volunteer with a pet rescue organization, meet up with friends, play word puzzles, and get back in shape. 

Except the getting back in shape part didn't work out the way I expected it to go. For a couple of glorious months, I got up before everyone else in the house and walked two miles, usually listening to a guided meditation for the first part of the walk. Then I would make breakfast for everyone and get on with my day. 

At first there was no problem. I gave my body about fifteen minutes of gentle movement before starting the walk. Sometimes I would feel a little stiff but after a half mile the muscles would warm up nicely. But two months into my morning walks, I began to feel pain in my left hip. Cleaning up hurricane debris in the yard, after Hurricane Helene, was extremely painful. I used a rake to clear aside leaves and branches, so I wasn't bending over all the time. I decided to stop walking to give my injury time to heal. That was around the time Hurricane Milton came through and we had company visiting. Much less to clean up after Milton. 

But the injury wasn't healing. I sought the help of my chiropractor. She formed a theory and sent me to get an x-ray. Arthritis had degraded the cushioning in the left hip socket and there was a slight flat spot on the side of the head of the femur. I continued receiving ultrasound, muscle stimulation, and massage therapy and adjustments. I also asked my doctor for arthritis medication and a referral to physical therapy. They gave me exercises to strengthen my muscles and recommended an arthritis pain topical cream. They were optimistic that the inflammation could be reduced and the muscles strengthened.

I admit I did not understand the warning signs of arthritis. Several years ago, I began to wake up at night with pain in the hip on the side I was lying. I would turn over and sleep until the other hip woke me up. After the national Covid pandemic lock-down, when we returned to school with most students attending class on Zoom and a few in person, my work became sedentary, with long hours at the computer teaching and grading digital files. We all tried cameras and remote microphones to counter sitting at the computer, but ultimately sitting was what had to happen. I tried to get exercise to balance the computer time, but it was a challenge with all the other things that accompanied teaching high school that year. Then last year, my last year in the classroom, my hip started to hurt while I was standing and teaching.

So here I am, less active now but determined to recover strength, balance, and mobility.

Thoughts on leaving the classroom

After thirty-five years, I have left the classroom. People ask me if it is bittersweet. "Bittersweet" implies more of an extreme duality than I would use to describe my experience of teaching high school. The times when I felt bitter were mainly frustration that many institutional tasks took energy away from my teaching. "Sweet" seems superficial and doesn't really describe the deep fulfillment and satisfaction I felt from watching my students catch the thrill of finding their own discoveries in a text. My own process of learning as I was teaching brought me hours of contentment, reading and planning and making my own discoveries. I did a lot of groundwork to be able to lead discussions that invited my students to have their own creative interpretations, always staying grounded in the text. I am grateful for the hundreds of fascinating students and colleagues I met and got to know through the daily contact in the classroom. They are cool people. They are worthy.

So I prefer to say it's a mixed bag-- a balance of sadness, joyfulness, and gratitude. And now I have time to do other things that make me feel useful and active.

Messages to the Universe

 My husband hosted a retirement party for me and I invited our friends to send a message to the universe. I promised to deliver the messages and here they are. 

 

I am sending my best wishes to the world for more peace and tolerance among human beings. May everyone emerge from their own opinions, biases, mental strongholds, dogmatic teachings, and open themselves to allow things to happen and be--Don't resist, don't hide, don't retreat! "Be open to everything and attached to nothing," to quote Wayne Dyer. Allow things to come and pass! All is well, all is good. 

Dear Universe: Hope you are well. I don't really know what to ask, but if you could tone down the temperature a bit in summer, it would be nice! 😊

Keep my heart open in order to love, value, and connect to others without judgment. 

Let us please figure out this environmental problem or should I say disaster we humans made in the last decades. I know it is possible to solve it before it is too late. 

Dear Universe: You deserve so much more than we're giving you right now. I don't even know that we're trying our best. I know that you will go on, without or without us. Thanks for this brief, glorious moment. 

Hello! Is anyone out there? Is anyone out there? If you are there, I have a few requests. 1--Please help my wife not be so crazy. Marrying a crazy man is not a valid excuse.  2--Make sure we have plenty of beer. There is no life without beer.  3--I hate to bring this back but I do not understand why my wife doesn't not understand that I am always right... (sometimes, actually, I am left...)  4--Help baby grandson understand he can be in a crazy family--all the normal ones were already full.  5--Thank you for our neighbors--they are doing ok with their crazy neighbors.  Okay, so if you hear me--Hurry up---this is urgent and I need your help. Thank you--be good-- 😊

I am humbled to know that I am part of this magnificent universe. And to the freshman who left his mother's avocado green Oxo silicone spatula at International Day about 20 years ago, and never claimed it--thank you, universe, for sending me this wonderful tool that has been part of my morning breakfast routine ever since.

We know answers will come from the universe and we are listening.

Tomato update and summer plans

 The tomatoes are recovering from being savaged by the deer just as they were getting started producing fruit. I had put up netting but not all the way around, but now they are fully protected and bearing fruit. 

Summer plans are very loose. I'm not making any big decisions for a while. Retiring from the classroom after thirty-five years of teaching high school was a decision that took a lot of energy and planning. That's enough for now. The thank you notes are getting me through these early days.

Tomato time again

 The tomato plants are in the ground today. For three weeks I have gathered plants. Three from the nursery-- 1 Red Pearl, 2 Super Sweet One Hundred. Two from the locally owned grocery that sells plants also-- 1 Sun Gold and 1 Dwarf Lemon Ice. Six from the Saturday morning farmer's market near us-- the 6 turned out to be 11 Sun Gold plants in six pots. I hadn't noticed until this morning that they hadn't been thinned out. What the heck. I couldn't separate them so I planted them as they were. In the ground and watered, no cages yet. I'll do that later this afternoon to keep the inexperienced deer from nibbling them. 

It was pleasant to go to the farmer's market last Saturday morning. I hadn't been in years. It was a good way to start spring break. A head of lettuce, a bag of cherry tomatoes, a dozen organic eggs, and the Sun Gold plants. I hope to go more often.