There’s something even better than “free” time, friend!
I poured my heart out, wondering how to direct my (useful and helpful!) energies in this next season, since my kids had both recently moved out.
“Well, you can do crossword puzzles,” my friend offered helpfully. He was lucky I didn’t kill him right there. (I felt like strangling him).
Join people in sixty-five countries who read this! (Look! I don’t know why people read this stuff, either! It must be because they’re cool!) Let’s journey together!
If I had to do crossword puzzles for the rest of my life, I would probably just throw them all out the window and kill everyone who came near me.
Which reminds me of my dad’s first few weeks in the care home just after he had developed dementia. My dad hadn’t said anything that the caregivers could understand for three weeks. Then one day, my dad said, “Get me the ‘F’ out of here.”
“That was clear,” offered the head nurse.
So, doing crossword puzzles reminds me a bit of when they tried to give my dad crayons at that care home after his very clear words, above. My brother said, “I wouldn’t have liked to have been the one who handed him the crayons!” That’s exactly how I feel!
My dad is the only one who understands me, and he’s demented!
And anyway, how old am I1? But the point is that some think I’m at the end of my usefulness to society because my kids are old enough to have moved out? That’s not what the lesson of the dragonfly (and God!) taught me.
Read that article HERE because you probably didn’t bother to read it the first time, and you need to remember truths like this if you are floundering in your next season.
And remember, don’t do crossword puzzles for the rest of your life! Especially if that thought makes you feel like killing everyone around you! I hope that helps!
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
We showed you how to pull your weight when we were with you, so get on with it. We didn’t sit around on our hands expecting others to take care of us. In fact, we worked our fingers to the bone . . . And it wasn’t because we didn’t have a right to your support; we did.
As the song below sings, “nothing to gain, nothing to lose . . . nothing to prove . . . it’s right where I’m supposed to be,” should we consider pondering whether it COULD it be that the cultural gold medal of “early retirement,” or time “off” after 5:00 pm, could be another opportunity to step into the next phase of God’s plan for our lives?
Join people in sixty-five countries who read this! (Look! I don’t know why people read this stuff, either! It must be because they’re cool!) Let’s journey together!
Photo Credit: (Let God Show You How To) Use Your Gifts by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
1 I’m not telling – How dare you ask!
