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Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Promises to keep


Next year, I want to travel to places I've never been to. Quite often, and especially on cloudy and rainy days, on days when my four walls have worn me out, I make promises like this and I mean each and every one of them.

We retired early because we were exhausted from all our work; and we had never had time and money to do much vacationing in places we had dreamed about.  Now that we have time, we notice something we didn't know back in our working days. Then, we slept five hours, worked fifteen, and took care of family and household chores the rest of the time. What we wanted more than anything was more time.

Time when nothing was required of us.

Now that we have time, days and weeks and months with no real important stuff that needs done, we find out that what we really want is energy and passion to start something new, something meaningful and important, something that will allow time to slip by.

We spend so much time just going to the doctors and laboratories associated with our medical conditions, and because  these are too far away,  spending the night at a motel, visiting with family nearby, and shopping in stores that have more than the stores we can access regularly, these medical" necessities suck up all our discretionary funds.

When we return home, we are beat.

It takes two, three days to recuperate from all that traveling. You see, we are genuinely conscientious of every bite we put in our mouths due to our medical conditions. But, when we are away from home, we sin with abandon. Dessert? Sure! Extra gravy? Definitely! Trying a new dish at a new restaurant allows us to forget that these visits are necessities through and through and that after the trip, no more steak frites, no more creme brulee, no more Elmer's Special Breakfast with  Dutch Pancake on the side. Our lives are measured by teaspoons of low-fat salad dressings, mixed greens and  four ounces of broiled fish or broiled chicken. I can be as creative as I want when I cook, as long as I measure carefully, and often.

We have our fiftieth wedding anniversary coming up.

I wonder if we'll have the energy and the resources to pull off a trip of a lifetime to match the importance of this date. I wonder if we should just be happy and satisfied to take our medical mini vacations as long as we can. After all, as long as we keep going, year after year, and enjoy the little pleasures we encounter, who needs anything more?








14 comments:

joeh said...

Youth is wasted on the young!

carol l mckenna said...

How blessed you are to have your 'fiftieth
anniversary' coming up and many more healthy ones !

Happy Holiday to you,
artmusedog and carol

Unknown said...

Oh those medical appointments...for sure we have a similar background, waiting to retire and do all those things....fortunately we are in pretty good health and will leave Saturday in our motor home for a southern snowbird trip for a couple months. What gets me now is once I'm gone I am ready to return home in a few weeks, not so with Jerry who could be a gypsy. There is a lot to see & experience for sure and retirement means time, but sometimes here too it brings inertia. Oh well, sometimes familiarity is contentment. I wish you a very nice holiday season, we intended to be on the road by now, but not so. Honestly I do not know where all my time goes, except that my physical activities at the Y each morning across the river take half the day but it's essential to staying healthy for me. Otherwise, I dabble a lot and well inertia or what? Enjoyed this post as always,

Rob-bear said...

Yes, a days activities (like going to the doctor and a bit of shopping, even wears this old Bear. Sigh.

We celebrated out 45th this year;hope your 50th is a wonderful time!

Blessings and Bear hugs!

Tom said...

The eternal conundrum: if you have the money, you don't have the time; if you have the time you don't have the money. If you have the time and the money, you don't have the energy. I think it depends on how much you really want to go. If you really want it you'll make the effort. If you don't make the effort, perhaps you didn't want to travel as much as you thought.

Vagabonde said...

It is nice that you’ll celebrate your 50th anniversary soon and you are both pretty healthy – congratulations.
My father never wanted to go on holidays. When I was growing up my mother would rent an apartment in Brittany or Normandy and we would go, he never came. He always said that he would travel as soon as he retired. One year after he retired he died. So I always thought I should travel even when money was tight. In addition to my job I would do translations, be a tour guide for French speakers and other jobs (sometimes working 60 to 70 hours in a week) so I had extra money, and when I went to Paris to visit my parents I always took a flight where I could stop somewhere else. Most of the 60 countries I visited I did before I retired and I am pleased I did because, as you say, now it is difficult with the lack of energy, my husband’s illness and my bad knees. In addition I went to Africa, I don’t know a dozen or more times, alone, and now I would be a bit afraid to go alone.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Rosaria - if you can pluck up courage and visit do so .. plan in advance so you do the things you want to see and don't over stretch .. but enjoy ... or just do something very special nearer to home that won't stress you too much .. and do what you each want ...

We live our life as we live ... I think Vagabonde's ideas were good to stop on the way through ... I always flew straight home and now feel perhaps I missed out .. but the adventure spirit wasn't there then!!

Cheers and just enjoy that build up to 50 years of marriage .. wonderful achievement - Happy Christmas and New Year - Hilary

Helen said...

Fifty years is an amazing accomplishment! Wishing you stable health and much happiness as you continue life's journey!

Brian Miller said...

50 years...that is awesome! so few have that sustainability these days....and i hope that you get to do some of that traveling...beyond medical vacations...

ellen abbott said...

at this time we have health and a little money and being self employed, we can make the time to travel except we have a cat and no one to care for her if we go.

Maggie May said...

Congratulations on your 50th wedding anniversary. We've just celebrated our 51st!
I smiled when you said, what we need is passion and energy! Yes....... I agree with that!
For us to be near to major hospitals is of the utmost importance! However, the downside is being stuck in the city!

Happy Christmas, both of you.
Maggie x

Amanda Summer said...

Wishing you a Happy Holidays dear Rosaria and many blessings for the New Year, including that trip of a lifetime. May you take it - 50 years of marriage is worth a celebration.

xoxo

fiftyodd said...

Yep. The hospital appointment thing and money juggling is a big deal. We have only done 38 years but we are going on a Valentine's cruise to Madagascar from Cape Town - 7 days to celebrate our retirement (now a period of two weeks!) Hope we have a good time as it might be the last trip! No idea yet how the living expenses will work out except to say Christmas presents for the grandchildren will be much more humble in future.

Unknown said...

Our lives are pretty similar. In fact today I had two 9 AM Monday morning Doctor appointments ( I forgot about one). However the snow storm gave me an excuse to not go to either one. Then my thoughts go to a dear friend who died a week ago. She was 64, first time grandma and looking forward to retirement. Better to fill your life with appointments than to be on "the wrong side of the roses".