Buying My Own Red Cabbage

This blog is written by Lee Gale Gruen to help retirees, those soon to retire, baby boomers, and seniors reinvent themselves in this new stage of their lives called retirement. Her blog, public lecture, and new self-help book on senior reinvention are titled: Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement Years: Find Joy Excitement, and Purpose After You Retire. Her memoir is: Adventures with Dad: A Father and Daughter’s Journey Through a Senior Acting Class. Books descriptions follow her blog below. Both books are available at Amazon.com by clicking here and here. Her website is: LeeGaleGruen.com

Now, on to my blog:

Eureka, I am free! I’ve had my second Covid 19 vaccine shot, and the requisite time has passed for all those little antibodies boogieing around inside to kick in and protect my corpus. I’m ready to come out of hibernation! I spent the entire lockdown without entering a supermarket. I’ve written on this theme before. (See my blog of 5-27-20: “Missing the Little Things.”). Now, finally, I can do my own shopping–oh joy, oh rapture!

My marketing chores had been done by erstwhile professional shoppers through the local shopping app, who then delivered them to my door. Thank you, guys. You are among the first responders, keeping the rest of us safe or at least safer. As a result of a breakdown in communication, however, at times I received some strange items having nothing to do with what I had in mind as my choices were fed into a computer.

As part of my last online order, I requested one red cabbage. My groceries arrived, and indeed it contained said item. However, it was the biggest red cabbage I have ever seen, weighing in at four pounds. I could have drilled a few holes and launched it as a lightweight bowling ball. I normally use red cabbage only as one of many ingredients in a green salad, so a small one lasts me a long time. Now that I had received a lifetime supply, I took to google for recipes. Subsequently, I have used my multi-pounder for items such as colorful coleslaw and braised sweet and sour cabbage. Nevertheless, I still have 1.63 pounds left–sigh.

Yes, I have been hungering, thirsting, and pining to do my own food shopping. What I used to consider just a necessary chore became a wished for dream. Now, I am able to make my own decisions about how and what I eat. I cruise the aisles choosing my old favorites that had been unavailable to me with a middleman involved. I evaluate, weigh, and judge each item, using my brain and personal likes and dislikes. No longer am I a child to someone else’s parenting. Of course, my red cabbage scenario extrapolates to all the other areas of my life.

When we relinquish our personal power and control to someone or something else, we become dependent. It is then difficult to make our own decisions. So, I’ve taken mine back. I’m still sharp and don’t need caretakers. What about you? Once you’ve had your requisite vaccinations, reclaim what you had to give up. Step back into your big boy pants or big girl dress!

Photo credit: Koshyk on VisualHunt / CC BY

SYNOPSES OF BOOKS BY: LEE GALE GRUEN

Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement Years: Find Joy, Excitement, and Purpose After You Retire (self-help): Not a one-size-fits-all approach, this self-help book for retirees, those soon to retire, baby boomers, and seniors offers an individualized, detailed guide to assist readers in discovering activities and pursuits in this new stage of their lives called retirement, based on their own likes and comfort level. I learned the secret the hard way transitioning from retired probation officer to actress, author, public speaker, and blogger. Audience members at my lectures on senior reinvention requested a book on the subject. This is the result, and it contains the content of those talks and six years of posts from this blog. CLICK here TO PURCHASE FROM AMAZON.COM.

Adventures with Dad: A Father and Daughter’s Journey Through a Senior Acting Class (memoir): After retiring at age 60 from my 37-year career as a probation officer, I mistakenly enrolled in an acting class for seniors.  A few weeks later, my mother died, and I invited my grieving, 85-year-old father to come to class with me.  This is the true story of our magical journey attending that class together for three years, bonding more than ever.  I wrote the comedy scenes we performed onstage twice a year in the acting class showcases, and all six scenes are included in the book.  I eventually transitioned into the world of professional acting.  As my fledgling, second career started going uphill, my dad’s health started going downhill.  I would recount to him each of my new experiences while I sat beside his bed at the nursing home where he resided in his final years. CLICK here TO PURCHASE FROM AMAZON.COM.

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Please forward my blog in its entirety to anyone who might be interested and post it on your Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts. To reprint any material, contact me for permission at: gowergulch@yahoo.com. If you want to be automatically notified when I post a new blog, click on the “Follow” button in the upper right corner of this page and fill in the information. To read my other blog posts, scroll down on this page or click on “Recent Posts” or “Archives” under the Follow button. To opt out of receiving this blog, contact me at the aforementioned email address, let me know, and I’ll remove you from the list.

Squeezing in a Hike Between Rainy Days

This blog is written by Lee Gale Gruen to help retirees, those soon to retire, baby boomers, and seniors reinvent themselves in this new stage of their lives called retirement. Her blog, public lecture, and new self-help book on senior reinvention are titled: Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement Years: Find Joy Excitement, and Purpose After You Retire. Her memoir is: Adventures with Dad: A Father and Daughter’s Journey Through a Senior Acting Class. Synopses of her books follow her blog below. Both books are available at Amazon.com by clicking here and here. Her website is: LeeGaleGruen.com

CHITCHAT: On March 3, 2021, I was a guest blogger on “Happiness between Tails.” In the blog, I discuss my own personal journey to my “second act” as a retiree and senior as well as my thoughts, suggestions, and philosophy about senior reinvention. Here is the link: http://frame.bloglovin.com/?post=7899031243&blog=19125571&frame_type=none

Now, on to my blog:

I pass through the gate separating my retirement community from the wilderness surrounding it–a demarcation line between bustling civilization and an untouched world. I’ve traversed that same divider before, each time feeling like I’m in the 1937 movie “Lost Horizon” where I turn a corner after having slogged through howling snow up treacherous mountain peaks, and Shangri-La opens up before me. I’ve written on this topic before–same location, different wonders. (See my blog of March 31, 2020, “Out and About in the Time of Covid 19”: https://leegalegruen.wordpress.com/2020/03/) What discoveries await me this time?

Here’s the first one: a pile of medium-sized boulders resting in the hollow of an otherwise smooth, grass-covered mini-valley. It is alone, this pile. How did it get here? What sliding glaciers or tumultuous waters deposited those hefty rocks in just this spot to rest for eons as their driving H2O slowly receded? When was that very instant when the raging forces began to dissipate, no longer having the power to move the boulders along? Now they sit, waiting for global warming to raise the ocean levels anew and trickle back to this area to continue the task of herding their charges along a mysterious path.

I scramble on, searching for the next find. There it is beneath my feet. My pathway is flanked by moss, brought out by the last rains. It forms a luxurious, green carpet against the brown dirt trail.

I come upon some scat which reminds me that this is not my private domain. A wild creature has been here recently. I am the invader, encroaching upon its territory.

I spot majestic trees at the top of the hill, the evergreens sporting their full-time leaves and the deciduous awaiting their spring foliage. They beckon me to dig deep for a reserve of strength to keep climbing. I struggle up and summit the crest, searching for my destination.

I see it–a large, isolated boulder. It must have been that same furious ice or liquid that positioned it here so long ago. Although hard to make out in the bright sunlight, it is chiseled on its face with 19th century hieroglyphics—a young man announcing his name and the date, 1855, to the world as young men have done since humans first encountered such convenient writing surfaces.

Time to turn back for home–enough for today. I leave Shangri-La behind, but I know it is there waiting for me to revisit whenever I choose. I’ll await the predicted rains in the coming days bringing their cleansing life force.

I’m left to ponder the very instant when our lives turn. We don’t usually recognize it while it’s happening–only in hindsight. Can we mobilize the fortitude to move forward once again, or must we wait eons?

SYNOPSES OF BOOKS BY: LEE GALE GRUEN

Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement Years: Find Joy, Excitement, and Purpose After You Retire (self-help): Not a one-size-fits-all approach, this self-help book for retirees, those soon to retire, baby boomers, and seniors offers an individualized, detailed guide to assist readers in discovering activities and pursuits in this new stage of their lives called retirement, based on their own likes and comfort level. I learned the secret the hard way transitioning from retired probation officer to actress, author, public speaker, and blogger. Audience members at my lectures on senior reinvention requested a book on the subject. This is the result, and it contains the content of those talks and six years of posts from this blog. CLICK here TO PURCHASE FROM AMAZON.COM.

Adventures with Dad: A Father and Daughter’s Journey Through a Senior Acting Class (memoir): After retiring at age 60 from my 37-year career as a probation officer, I mistakenly enrolled in an acting class for seniors.  A few weeks later, my mother died, and I invited my grieving, 85-year-old father to come to class with me.  This is the true story of our magical journey attending that class together for three years, bonding more than ever.  I wrote the comedy scenes we performed onstage twice a year in the acting class showcases, and all six scenes are included in the book.  I eventually transitioned into the world of professional acting.  As my fledgling, second career started going uphill, my dad’s health started going downhill.  I would recount to him each of my new experiences while I sat beside his bed at the nursing home where he resided in his final years. CLICK here TO PURCHASE FROM AMAZON.COM.

***

Please forward my blog in its entirety to anyone who might be interested and post it on your Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts. To reprint any material, contact me for permission at: gowergulch@yahoo.com. If you want to be automatically notified when I post a new blog, click on the “Follow” button in the upper right corner of this page and fill in the information. To read my other blog posts, scroll down on this page or click on “Recent Posts” or “Archives” under the Follow button. To opt out of receiving this blog, contact me at the aforementioned email address, let me know, and I’ll remove you from the list.