Last week a friend asked, “How is retirement?” I remarked, “I have the cleanest closets in Woodstock.”
There is a surreal feel to this moment, because it is only a moment. I will work again. I can feel something emerging and I know, if I can be patient enough, it will reveal itself to me. I want to be complete with my time at Shelter Care, wrap all the loose ends together, and open myself to the next great adventure.
Doing nothing is not a strong suit for me – I am a doer; I do things.
Things are looking pretty good in the house; I am running out of “Things to do.” Now comes the part that makes me squirm – doing nothing, waiting. It is here -- in the waiting -- where we discover the ways the past will teach us about the present and shape the future, in the silence and emptiness of self.
The only thing that can be filled is an empty cup. In this emptiness I find my truest self, the one that is forming and shaping, taking recent experiences, gleaning them and then being complete I can invite something new.
Until I am husked out and scraped clean, I will continue to clean my house and yard; work my hands to the good of our home. I know it’s coming and, when these serene days vanish, I will miss them.
Meanwhile, the glow you see in Woodstock, that’s my squeaky clean house.
I’m Lou Ness, and that’s my perspective
