We went to a neighbor's brunch yesterday and after a while, I began to feel strange. Everyone else was traveling all over the world and seem to have an agenda for the next decade. Maybe that is what retired people do who can't wind down. I felt exhausted just contemplating the last couple of months of the neighbors: jetting to Patagonia, India, Ohio, Rome, Oklahoma City and here. I could feel the blood clots forming in my legs. I think, maybe because they are doctors, their metabolisms are on speed dial. Everything is hurried, rushed and they are calmly sorting through reams of information and data as they fly, drive, walk to see more and more and more. I am not being sarcastic. I just realized I live in an alternate universe. I'm pretty happy being slowed down to the snail's world. Yesterday my husband and I walked up the street with the dogs to see a flowering apple tree. That was our big tour of the day. And I'm proud of the days when I do not get in a vehicle of any kind.
But listening to these other people made me feel like a quitter, someone who is making themselves old instead of rushing around like a thirty year old. I don't have an answer to what the balance might be. Yes, I love to see other cultures and places, but I feel like I've shored up so many memories and learned so much already that the drive to see more is muted these days. We have three or four modest trips coming up: my husband and daughter are taking a road trip to the Grand Canyon, I'm going to see the other daughter and granddaughter for three days, we are going two nights four hours north for our anniversary and then a road trip in April to see friends, our daughter and granddaughter, and my best friend. The farthest away is two states. Sounds boring, yet it is what we want to do the most right now. Maybe we will get a hankering for exotic places. I cannot say. But right now, my own neighborhood is pretty alluring, and if anything is calling to me, it's daffodils and tulip trees.
No comments:
Post a Comment