A New Season

 

In this life on Earth, we have seasons associated with calendars and seasons of the mind. 

With the completion of our 60th-year class reunion, I find myself on this Monday morning embarking on a season of new and hopefully more stress-free goals. 

My everlasting goal is to move forward toward the elimination of stress-inducing projects. Time after time, though, that goal falls short, often sooner rather than later.

Perhaps it will continue to do so, but I can still try to make life easier. 

Anyway, as one of my fellow committee members said the other day about the reunion, "I'll be glad when it's over, but I'm excited."

I felt exactly the same way, and I'm thinking we've all felt that way countless times in our respective lives. 

Plus, we've often emphatically maintained, "When this is over, I'm not going to take on any more major projects." 

I said that very thing about story assignments. 

 What did I do?  

Came up with a story idea and when Trish asked if I wanted to write it, I said, "Yes."  

Twasn't long after that when I said to myself, "Why did you do that?"

Well, by now, the story has been written and submitted and only a few cutlines remain. 

As for reunions, we all have four years to think about the next one---four years to think and one year to plan. 

Maybe I'll hide under the covers when that fourth year is up. 

We are creatures of habit, and too often the stuff we say we're never going to do again pops up, and we embrace it. 

For now, it's a Monday morning which feels like a big weight has been lifted, and my short-term goal is to savor that for a while. 

We have some fun stuff coming up in the next month or so (Ireland, anyone?) and we do have the fall projects to tackle. 

Right now, that seems like a fun and even stress-free vision, even though it involves work. 

Often tackling plain old work and mundane projects like vacuuming or mowing the lawn, with a mind abuzz with the most recent beautiful memories, turns out to be the best therapy for the soul.

So, that's what I'll do today and tomorrow and for as long as possible to avoid the temptation of saying yes to something that's gonna involve time and mental toil. 

It's a tentative stress-free season, and I'm ready to say yes to the opportunity for as long as possible. 

Happy Monday.  

Enjoy the photos after clicking the video.