1. This morning at 10:00, Bill, Diane, Bridgit, Val, and I joined forces on ZOOM in celebration of Bridgit's retirement. Her last day of work was on Friday, after spending most of her life in human services, both in the field and as an administrator, and she struck me as relieved, tired, and maybe even a little bit in awe that she went to work on Friday, put in her day, and suddenly it was over.
It was heartening to hear from Bridgit that her colleagues not only praised her to the hilt as she ended her career, but stepped up and helped her get many tasks done that helped her get to and cross the finish line.
And, so, as we conversed for about 90 minutes, retirement was the word of the day!
It led us to discuss not only life after a work career ends, but also the necessity of determining what our purpose in life is and how we figure that out after so many years of work driving our lives and how we live them.
2. After a day of Patrick and Debbie working hard on projects around the house, especially in the basement, we sat at the kitchen table together and ate Buffalo Wings with celery and blue cheese, a dinner Patrick requested as he and I traveled from the airport to Kellogg.
Debbie watched an episode of Vera and upon its conclusion she and Patrick both headed to their respective sleeping areas upstairs.
I decided to give the Netflix series, Black Doves, a try, watched the first episode, and found it suitably intense and intriguing and I plan to continue watching it.
3. Today was Day 4 in the 10 Days of Joy project I'm participating in on Facebook.
The picture I posted is below.
In addition to what I wrote about it, also seen below, nearly five years ago, this picture brings me joy because I treasure how our family pulled together back in 2020. From the get go, we were in agreement on what we needed to do as far as staying put in our homes, deciding when we could gather again, and what protocols we would follow when we decided to gather again.
I was especially grateful for this unity because the possibility existed that the coronavirus could be especially hard on people, like me, with Chronic Kidney Disease.
Our family understood this and we were unified not only in protecting ourselves but each other.
As I mention below, Debbie sewed these masks we are wearing on a day late in May of 2020 when we decided we could have a get together because we could establish distance between ourselves in Paul and Carol's house and wear our protective covering when we weren't eating.
Here's what I wrote about this picture back on May 27, 2020:
The thing I like most about this picture is that we didn't plan for it to look the way it does -- several people who've seen it think it looks like an album cover. Christy wanted a picture of us wearing masks Debbie sewed. Zoe set the timer on her camera. Paul slid to the floor. Zoe stood near where she'd been sitting. The rest of us stayed in place and we accidentally ended up with this great picture. It was a moment of serendipity and good luck.
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