by Sharon O | Feb 5, 2016 | Uncategorized
Today’s word prompt is again an easy one for me to write about since it hits home with me on many levels.
The word for the day is: FOCUS
As we are heading into our retirement years and the months move quickly towards my husbands last day at work.
I am keeping busy cleaning and purging and revamping closets and clutter.
The other day I spent a few hours adding items to my Etsy store in hopes of decluttering a book case that has old antique books in it and assorted collectible items.
I am going through my closet and deciding, do I like it, love it or do I really need to keep it?
Since being retired about six years ago I have discovered the nice clothes I wore daily to work, are not being worn.
So I don’t really need to keep them right? They don’t need to take space in the closet anymore.
Also it is hard to FOCUS when as a writer, I have personal writing deadlines and then chores, and then cleaning and the list continues.
I have been helping our daughter keep her FOCUS on her home and job and kids and just life’s stresses when one is a single mom.
It is an every day thing, on going and although it is good, it is hard sometimes to stay on track.
As a couple we have to say, sometimes it is hard to FOCUS on what is ahead for us.
What we need to do as far as financial decisions, do we sell our home? do we get a motor home?
do we find a new car or keep what we already have? many decisions to be made.
Then to add all that together with staying in a direction where we FOCUS our goals together, it is challenging.
The meaning of FOCUS is to be clear and sharply defined, to direct one’s attention or efforts. To concentrate.
As we head into the next six months we will be moving more and more into a new direction.
To FOCUS our thoughts on what we need to do, how we need to do it, and when do we want this goal to be done.
We have talked about paying bills off, and planning a vacation of travel and sightseeing.
It takes a concentrated FOCUS to reach any goal.
That could mean retirement, or raising children, or exercising and getting healthy, going to college and getting a better job for ones future.
We all have had times in our lives when we must FOCUS on a plan and see it through to the end.
It takes effort, goal making, no distractions, and a mindset that we will FOCUS till it is done.
I like the word for the day. Let us FOCUS and do good and never let go of our goal.
by Sharon O | Jan 29, 2016 | Uncategorized
I saw the word prompt for today and it is what I have been learning to value for the last year or two.
Quiet. The word for the day is quiet.
I am in quiet most of the time, on some days I watch home shows on tv as I love to watch the buying and selling and remodeling ones.
It is fun to imagine the people who want to purchase a vacation home at a price of $1.1 million?
What is important to know and realize whether you live in a tiny house or a big house, it won’t solve the quiet inside your heart.
Peace comes from making peace deep within your heart and your spirit.
Quiet is a gift we give ourselves. It is breathing room for your soul.
Quiet allows us to listen to the whispers of the Lord.
He won’t shout. He won’t push. He won’t yell or intimidate. He whispers quietly and if we are too busy listening to the noise we will miss the gentle quiet lesson or words spoken.
Do I think He speaks to us, yes absolutely.
Have you ever stood at the beach and listened? the seagulls call is almost mournful as they fly over the roar of the loud ocean.
The waves sound in the rhythmic movements inward to the sand then out back to the depths of the ocean.
I stand mesmerized by the quiet and yet it is noise similar to a symphony. Each movement necessary.
I am by nature one who loves the quiet. I get very tired and very irritable with noise.
The years lately have taught me quiet is peace. Quiet is healing.
Psalm 119: [You’re my place of quiet retreat; I wait for your Word to renew me.]
Matthew 5:1-2 [When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him.
Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions.]
Matthew 6:6 [“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage.
The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.”]
Jesus knew we could not focus when there is other noise around us. The word quiet is used 114 times in the bible.
I think that should be something important for us to remember.
It is good to be in quiet. Colossians 3:12 [So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you:
compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline.] Do we get it yet?
Be quiet so we can have a teachable moment and listen.
by Sharon O | Jan 27, 2016 | Uncategorized
It’s hard to imagine us being retired. Soon my husband will be home, every day.
What will be our new normal? I don’t think too much will change for us. He will still get up early and I will sleep in.
He will still find time for some yard work till we find a home with no yard in a few years.
Our hope is to move to a new ‘place’ with less grass and maintenance.
We haven’t found that place yet but we are actively looking and being very selective where and when.
We want to find a ‘motor home’ for traveling in, so we can ‘decide in the morning’…let’s go to the beach.
It will be a new direction and freedom for us.
It will be good after all these years of working and getting mentally tired of the demands placed on him.
I have been home ‘retired’ for over six years and it has been a good place to be.
No the chore list has not been finished, yes it is easy to get distracted, no I have not gotten my purging and cleaning done.
In time it will be finished and then the new freedom of less will be our ‘breathing room’.
I am by nature a keeper and saver, he is a thrower so we will see what takes place in the months to come for us.
It will be a good nice challenge, I think.
I am sure there will be moments when we will be frustrated with each other.
Retirement will be a new direction for us and it will be good and positive.
It is time. We both feel it is very important to spend time together and enjoying the life we have while we have it.
There have been friends who worked long many years, then retire and in six months they pass away.
What a sad thing to experience. We are hoping that this ‘new’ era of our life will be rich and rewarding for us.
Many changes will take place, and many details must be taken care of and once that is all done.
We can relax as we explore new beaches and new scenes all around the area where we live, it will be good.
by Sharon O | Jan 22, 2016 | Uncategorized
Today is my husbands birthday. He is 62 and ready to retire.
The word prompt today was for: Present
Isn’t that fitting since it is his birthday and usually you get a present for that special day?
Now that we are at a point of getting what we want anytime we need something, we stopped buying presents for each other years ago.
Everyone likes to get presents, but to think of it differently, I think this word could also mean, ‘be present’ right where you are.
Be alert and be fully alive. Breathe in and enjoy the air in your lungs and the life that God has given to you.
God has given all of us, one life to live and what we do with it is our gift back to him.
A present and a moment of time and for the rest of the days a head of us, as long as HE allows us to live.
I have known my husband close to 45 years. We have grown up together.
I want us to be present with each other, to be fully in the relationship and fully knowing we are so blessed.
Tomorrow we will go to the beach, which is our favorite thing to do.
We will walk on the oceans edge and listen to the waves roar around us.
Perhaps the haunting call of the seagull will be over us as we walk and talk.
Life is a gift, a present to unwrap and enjoy. Each day is a new day and each experience a new one.
“Life is a great and wondrous mystery, and the only thing we know that we have for sure is what is right here right now. Don’t miss it.”
— Leo Buscaglia —
Today is a new day. Breathe, be thankful, be aware, be present and enjoy another day of living.
by Sharon O | Jan 17, 2016 | Uncategorized
The word prompt for the day is TIME.
As I have gotten older it is becoming more clear that time is flashing before my eyes.
The grand children are getting older, friends are aging, even I am aging.
Turning sixty was not a ‘hard’ moment for me, but I feel like I am rounding out the ‘last part’ of life in much different way, I wish to be more intentional.
A year or so ago we were sitting in a room with a dying man. It was quiet. We were all in our thoughts.
It is a sacred kind of place to be in when life is leaving just as it is when life ‘comes’ when we are anticipating and waiting for a new birth.
The moment a baby is born and it takes it’s first breath, the doctor or nurse looks at the clock and it is recorded when time of life began.
Now we all know life begins way before birth, but the moment that baby breathes air, opens the lungs and cries. It is birth.
The same way as the ending of life, and the passing away.
He was in his chair, wrapped in a blanket, and breathing shallow, as we kept each other company with small talk and nervous reactions.
It is a very strange and surreal kind of time to reflect and remember and understand, life will end soon.
The tv was on in a muted quiet tone as the screen flashed a basketball game, and we were in a waiting room.
Just as in an anticipated birth, it happens in death too.
At one point in time I remember one of the ladies in the room suggested we turn the tv off and remain very quiet.
The stimulation of noise interferes with the passing where the spirit struggles to leave the body.
Noise can be a distraction. Just as in a birth, the process of dying takes much concentration and effort.
We were all in the room focusing on one goal, being with him as he passed away.
About an hour after the quiet began we noticed how his breathing changed, life was leaving him and we were there to witness it.
He exhaled and silence came and it was over. His life was ended.
In the moment of time, the paramedics looked at the clock and recorded his time of death.
Just as they do in the moment of birth.
In life and in death we look at the time.
Time… Every hour has the same amount of minutes, every day has the same amount of hours.
What we do with it becomes our legacy, our story and our life message.
At the end of our life, it matters MOST about what we did with those moments and who we cared for.
I will end with a quote from Maya Angelou:
[I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.]
In the end, when the moment in time comes, when they record our time of death.
What others remember about us will be more important than what job we had, what house we lived in or what car we drove.
Time is a gift for us, what we choose to do with that is a choice. I hope we all make a good one.
