Sun comes up.

After I had given my notice at the art center, a coworker and I were having a conversation over lunch.  She said something about “early retirement” and I said something along the lines of “someone is retiring?”.   She meant me.  After mumbling about and stating that I had never said the term “early retirement”, she said “Cindi, I don’t think it’s a bad thing”. 

It isn’t.  It’s just that I hadn’t thought about it that way.  I just thought of it as no longer working there.  I am not old enough for social security, and well, I just hadn’t thought of it as retirement. 

Now, six weeks or so down the road, I still don’t think of myself as retired but I am closer.  I walked around the yard this morning,  early for me, and thought of my dad, who enjoyed his yard so much.  Hubs mowed last night and the yard was just gorgeous at daybreak.  I spooked a heron and watched it fly over the lake and appreciated the graceful lines and the “squawk”.  I thought of my friend Kathy who gets bluebirds at her rural home while I get heron here at the lake, and how we each get excited to see them, every time.   

I don’t think I will turn in to one of those avid gardeners who worry over their rose bushes or tomato plants but I did pause a while over my two scraggly rose bushes and four tomato plants as I squished through the rain and dew soaked yard.  Yeah, this is a pretty good way to start the day, I thought to myself.  I could get into it.  I tilted my head toward the sun, just starting to come up and breathed in a new day.  This is good.

This is really good.