The receipe for enjoying retirement seems simple to me today -- I don't know how long lasting this perception will be. However, days like today seem the perfect way to live whatever one is doing -- although they are nearly impossible if one is stuck at a job with rigidly defined hours and duties.
I awoke cheerfully with a list on things in mind I hoped to accomplish today. After breakfast and getting dressed I got started and finished of a couple of the shorter tasks, then embarked on a long one -- finishing piecing the border of a quilt. I was well into it when a brilliant shaft of sunlight fell on my sewing table. This has been very rare during the winter and the angle and intensity has not happened for months. Enough, let the border wait. The radio predicted rain tomorrow. Carpe diem! Yes. That's an appropriate motto. So I put on shoes and socks, earrings and coat and went out to seize the day. What a day! Beautiful as spring can be. The flowers have burst open. In Central Park the row boats are being rented to young lovers and whoever else. The birds are hopping about finding insect snacks. Tourists are taking rides in the bicycle rickshaws that have lately spouted all over the city.
On my way out of the park I walked past the wonderful magnolia above that over many years I have seen to be the first flowering tree to spread it's petals. It is in a sheltered spot where the park drops down from Central Park West between 88th and 89th Streets. It is huge and next to it is a junior version. They seem to be the queen and her daughter, the princes, who hasn't quite got the timing and stamina of mama yet.
To work at something you want very much to do, and to have the freedom to get up and go out and enjoy the day -- that is the recipe. To be involved with something important to you and also able to stay in touch with the larger world -- a recipe I hope I can continue to follow for a long time.
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