It’s 3:00 p.m.. I went to my desk around 9:3o this morning, as Gerry was leaving for the gym, and have been there most of the day, save for a break for lunch and a game of chess. For most of the day, I’ve been working on writing competitions for Story Circle Network. One, just wrapping up and three on the horizon for 2025. There’s a lot of planning and work that takes place before they officially open to submissions.
As I created new folders and spreadsheets for 2025, I was reminded of the old days when I led our annual open enrollment project at the company I worked for. I loved the energy around this time of year when work that had consumed us came to fruition in the form of online tools for employees to make benefit elections and the behind-the-scenes work involved in taking those elections and making them work within the system. It wasn’t always easy, often stressful, but always satisfying.
I’m a planner and organizer at heart. I love the sense of accomplishment that comes from wrapping up projects, crafting new plans, and making things happen. Whether it’s for open enrollment or writing contests, the sense of satisfaction is the same, and comes as a result of using the abilities given to me by my Creator to contribute to something bigger than myself.
Now, I’m sitting here tapping out words for this post feeling tired—but it’s a satisfied tired. In retirement, I have the sweet gift of being able to say that I’m taking the day off tomorrow to do something different. There’s a pot of borscht simmering on the stove made with the last of this year’s beets—supper tonight and maybe lunch tomorrow. I’m enjoying a time of respite before chaos breaks out in the form of Molly’s agitation over the stream of trick-or-treaters we’re expecting and missing our home in a community in Kamloops where no one came to the door on Halloween.
It’s a good life, this. Like open enrollment in my working years, it’s not always easy and sometimes burdens seem too heavy to carry, but overall these latter years are sweet and I’m content in ways I wasn’t when I was younger. The ebb and flow of busy days and not-so-busy ones is manageable, leaning more in the direction of not-so-busy, which is as it should be by now.
So, how about you? Are you finding a balance these days that fits you well? Or is there too much or not enough of something? Is shifting toward balance within your control? (It isn’t always, and if you’re in that space right now, I’m sorry. Hang on.) If there is something you can do to restore a sense of balance, are you willing and able to do it? Is balance even something you think about?
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