Last night when I was posting on this blog I causally mentioned that the Holiday weekend was almost here. Of course I was talking about Labor Day...
Americans love any holiday that will give them a paid day off work...in most companies, this is still actually the case. But I did always think it a bit ironic that the most capitalistic, profit oriented country in the world would have an actual holiday celebrating LABOR, Organized Labor really...of all things. Labor was not really something you would think of celebrating, especially when we were engaged in the Cold War with the Communist (Labor Oriented) Soviet Union for all those years after the end of the Second World War.
But hey, it's a day off work and a paid day at that so way-cool! Any excuse to sit around for 3 days drinking beer with your buddies seems like a good idea, right?!
But in my world today, being retired...all the days are pretty the same, typically really busy now which suits me just fine. Work days, holidays, vacation days...whatever, they're all the same. Hence I rarely know what day of the week it is...usually my schedule tells me the day. If I am reading at the Nursing home...well it's Saturday. Church on Sunday morning...meet for a breakfast discussion first thing on Wednesdays and on and on.
It was a bit surreal at first but everything eventually worked itself out. When I first got sober...I spent most of my days going to recovery related classes, support groups and hanging out with other recovering folks at the local coffee shop. It worked, I stayed sober, got some time under my belt and then I was able to start living a more normal kind of life...
Today I have quite a few commitments on a weekly basis and get to spend a lot of time doing recovery oriented stuff in addition to meeting with shut-ins at the nursing home each week. It has been such a great experience for me doing this type of volunteer stuff because I get to meet so many new people. I never would have guessed that i would enjoy this kind of thing but I really do.
And the pace I set, the stuff I choose to do I can flex to meet my physical limitations and disabilities. That has always been the biggest obstacle to me doing any type of work volunteer or paid work.
I also get to write, pretty much at will and that has been a pleasant surprise as well because the X was the writer in the family and I never gave it any thought. But I can do it and most importantly...I love doing it. So that fills my days as well.
Well the sun is just peeking up over the horizon and trying to get the day started so I think I'm headed outside. It is already rather warm and muggy today...so sleeveless shirt weather which is fine with me. There aren't going to be many of those type of days left! So perhaps we will try and pursue a more serious post subject this afternoon....Happy Friday Morning!
