Slide Scan. Tim after working an overnight shift at Hienz. August 1976
This week I learned that five planets will be lined up in the sky and you should look for them just after sunset. When asked if it meant anything a reporter said that it was a good time to start something new. I have always been a little influenced by the moon thing, so I can at least entertain the notion that it is a way of looking at things in the sky that isn’t really backed up by science—more of an spiritual reaction.
I retired three years ago. I have spent those three years at home--what a luxury for me. I have spent the last fifty years going to work. I have been tied to the schedule that my employer could afford. At most four weeks vacation each year and some holidays off. I always worked at least one weekend day. My schedule was not always good for raising children or for personal relationships. I like to work and have been fortunate for most of those years to do something I felt passionate about—but I did kind of “fall into it.” I didn’t set out to do anything in particular except explore every option that came around. My wife thinks of me as a feral child in the best sense of the definition. But it does come with a down side. It means I didn’t get the early mentoring that comes with some childhoods. I figured it out myself—It is also just my nature so I can't just attribute it to parenting.
So retiring was a new beginning. Some people who retire think of it as the beginning of the last chapter and it may well be that. What I have found is that it is really an experiment. A rest, I suppose. Around here, I find us all on the verge of something new.
The world at large has less of a grip on me. I can make of things what I want a little easier--at least today. There is a strong connection to the beginning of my adult life. The future. In the past the future was front and center in its mystery. Then there is a big middle of one's life where the present means everything. And now again, the future is right there asking me to stop looking back reminding me of the leverage in a see-saw. The length of my life has scooted up. Now I find myself way out on the end keeping the balance. In a funny way, in the end you just run out of leverage and fall off the end letting the past fall to the ground.
I am counting on those planets. The ducks are in a row. The cows are coming home.
I have a new release on Saturday. I hope you can go to Spotify or Apple Music to listen.
Behind the paywall is a song I just sang for the first time this morning. It needs more work but I wanted to share it.It is a version of a song I recorded earlier.
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