The simple things in life are the best; a glass of chardonnay, crisp clean white flowers, and home.  I’m a homebody – and not.  I loved working and feeling like I accomplished something each day when I was out in the working world.  Now I wake when I please and putter around in a bathrobe for hours – and I feel a new sense of accomplishment.  I’m a homebody – and I would love to travel around the world.  Opposite ends of a spectrum.  These days I am retired and working on a new chapter in my life. Retirement is still a work in progress. I have time to do all the things I didn’t have time to do when I was younger.  I write, meet friends for long lunches, clean that dirty front door, and congregate with people of similar interests.

I recently wrote a piece about my bucket list, and said if I had all the money in the world, I’d travel.  I’d send friends a post card now and then but I’d see the world. I have wander lust and would return home now and then to check the mail on my way to visit the Egyptian pyramids, Scottish Highlands, green hills of Ireland, or whales off the coast of Alaska.  I blame my father, the barn-storming adventurer.  He thrust this sense of adventure on me, and I took it gladly.

Retirement funds will make me start here in the United States.  The Giant Redwoods are calling my name and I’ve never seen the eastern seaboard.  I have a new car that needs more mileage on it. For now, however, I’ll go to Heavener again for the Viking and Celtic Festival in April, and Ada with my friend to hear original literature.

Homebody?  Maybe not, but the simple things in life are still the best.