This blog is written by Lee Gale Gruen to help Baby Boomers, seniors, and those soon to retire find joy, excitement, and satisfaction in life after retirement. Her public lecture on this subject is titled, “Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement.” Her memoir, available by clicking here Amazon.com, is: Adventures with Dad: A Father and Daughter’s Journey Through a Senior Acting Class. Click here for her website: http://AdventuresWithDadTheBook.com
Now, on to my blog:
Each of us lives in a bucket–many buckets to be exact: our homes, our schools, our jobs, our extended hood, etc. Buckets are the catchment areas in which we roam, but they are for the most part relatively circumscribed. Some buckets are very small like that of the tree trimmer in the photograph, and some cover miles. Our various buckets bump up against each other, and we move from one to the next.
It is our responsibility to participate in keeping our buckets pleasant, tidy, positive, and all other adjectives we can think of to describe a comfortable life. We do so not only for ourselves, but for others who might share them with us.
I remember standing at a bus stop once with a man who was also awaiting the bus. He was eating some sort of fast food, and dropped the wrappers as he finished each item. I watched him as he opened his fist and, with as little effort as possible, let the paper, cup, or container float to the ground. In a short time, there was a small circle of trash surrounding him, but he was oblivious to it.
What if we all did that rather than throwing our discards into the nearest trash can? We would soon be maneuvering our way through our bucket by scaling a garbage heap. It is an unpleasant and unnecessary way to live.
How about the emotional trash we discard in our buckets? Are we going to spend all of our time posturing and fighting with everyone else? What if we all did that? Our buckets would soon be filled with anxiety, nervousness, upset, and negative feelings, also an unpleasant and unnecessary way to live.
Remember to do your part to care for your particular buckets, and encourage those close to you to do the same. Buckets can be a comfortable, joyful cocoon, or they can be a stressful, distressing jail.
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Remember to do your resting in a location conductive to that end. Choosing a roomful of people, noise, and stimulation does not yield good quality relaxation to most. If out and about, try to find a quiet, isolated place. If one is not available, you might decamp to your car. No car? Try a stall in the bathroom. It’s a one-holer, people are banging on the door, and you’ve run out of options? Then find any seat and use the earplugs and eye mask you always carry with you in your purse, pocket, back pack, whatever (you do carry them, right, along with a granola bar for quick energy when needed?). If all else fails, take a tip from this gal catching some Z’s on a commuter train instead of grabbing her cell phone to read her emails, navigate the net, or play mindless computer games. Make it work for you!
Are you a person who has trouble playing well with others? Or, perhaps you know someone like that. Getting along with other humans is a talent gained from part nature and part nurture.
We all carry heavy, emotional loads around with us. Some call it “baggage.” Whatever you call it, it exhausts you and depletes your energy. This angst you create for yourself is manifested in: worrying, ruminating, stressing, fixating, obsessing, etc. over what has happened or what might happen. 
I had just exited the airport after flying in from out of town and was waiting for the metro to take me home. When it arrived and the doors opened, I realized I had hit it at rush hour. The car was crammed with humanity—standing room only. That was fine with me; I liked the idea of remaining upright as I had been sitting on an airplane for two hours.
Have you ever been in a situation where you’re surrounded by people much younger than yourself? Have you ever felt invisible as they talk past you? A similar experience might occur even when the others are closer to your age, but they all know each other or attend the same class or go to the same church/temple/mosque, etc., and you’re the odd man out. This might happen when you’re seated at a table while attending an event, marking time in a waiting room, or at any other venue where you find yourself surrounded by strangers who are with others in a common grouping.
Clop, clop, clop—the sound of the horses’ hooves as they pulled the wagon taxi carrying me around Mackinac Island, Michigan last week. It was the time of the Lilac Festival during which all of the lilac bushes covering the island in their various colors and hues perform for the tourists. It seemed that every hotel, restaurant, park, private home and anywhere else something could be planted had its own lilac bushes for passersby to admire, sniff, and use as a backdrop to pose for photos.
No cars are allowed. All transportation is accomplished by horse drawn carriages and drays, bicycles, and good old-fashioned walking. Humans with pooper scoopers as well as machines pulled by draft horses, Belgians and Percherons mostly, ply the roads gathering the equine droppings. They are then composted and spread throughout the island to assist in the growth of those magnificent lilacs as well as other flora.
