~and so it begins~
~Monday morning~
How strange it seems to find myself at the beginning of a brand new week with only a few things left to do in my lifelong career as an educator. I have some meetings to attend online, paperwork to look over and finish up, and then to do a final check out with my district. After this is through, then I will officially be retired. I have absolutely no idea about what lies ahead for me in the future and no inkling at all as to where I am headed.
Yet one thing I definitely know to be true.
God is certainly not finished with me here on earth just yet.
I promised myself that I would take the next 8 weeks to simply just stop and try to enjoy the beauty of each day as it arrived. It will be my intent to catch up on things around home that have often gone neglected with the busyness that always came with being a teacher. I'm building my own "to do" list each day of not only things I need to do but also of things I want to do, a luxury that I have seldom afforded myself.
I'm almost certain to return to some type of part-time employment in the future, and whatever it is that I choose to do, I hope it can provide some kind of much needed service to others. There is no way that I will sit around and do nothing for very long because that is not the kind of person who I am. It is my hope to get the chance to sub once in a while for some of the districts in this area, but the bus to that opportunity will be driven by how healthy the world finds itself when school begins again in the fall. I also have given some serious thought to perhaps finding elderly folks who are looking for someone to assist them with their daily needs like grocery shopping, house cleaning, meal preparation, and other necessities. I enjoyed my nearly 10 years as a CNA back in Kansas while I worked at a long term care facility and grew to love caring for the elders there. I also plan to look for ways to volunteer here in Newkirk within our Kay County community. What a blessing it will be for Mike and I to get the chance to perhaps travel a bit when it is safe once again, and of course, I look forward to spending more time with 3 little girls who call me their "Grandma Peggy". There is no shortage of things to do, especially now in a world that finds itself in plenty of hurt.
For today, there are boxes to unpack of belongings from my classroom and that will be my first order of business. I'm reminded of my sister Sherry who retired after being an Oklahoma educator for well more than 40 years. She hated having to give up and probably would have gone on teaching forever if her tired body would have allowed it. From her fourth grade classroom on her final day on the job, all those many boxes of her school things went straight to the spare bedroom at their home in Altus. There they would remain unopened for several years while the dust fell upon them. A couple of summers before she died, Sherry had me come over one day and look through some of the boxes to see if there was anything I could use for my third grade students at Big Pasture. After that, she did finally begin to go through them and discard much of what she brought home that last day of school in May of 2010. I didn't understand why she did that at first or why it was that she couldn't let go of her life as an educator. Now I do understand because I too have felt the angst and pain that can go with it.
And so it begins.
There is a plan ahead.
My eyes are wide open as I wait for God to show me the next chapter in life that is mine.
How strange it seems to find myself at the beginning of a brand new week with only a few things left to do in my lifelong career as an educator. I have some meetings to attend online, paperwork to look over and finish up, and then to do a final check out with my district. After this is through, then I will officially be retired. I have absolutely no idea about what lies ahead for me in the future and no inkling at all as to where I am headed.
Yet one thing I definitely know to be true.
God is certainly not finished with me here on earth just yet.
I promised myself that I would take the next 8 weeks to simply just stop and try to enjoy the beauty of each day as it arrived. It will be my intent to catch up on things around home that have often gone neglected with the busyness that always came with being a teacher. I'm building my own "to do" list each day of not only things I need to do but also of things I want to do, a luxury that I have seldom afforded myself.
I'm almost certain to return to some type of part-time employment in the future, and whatever it is that I choose to do, I hope it can provide some kind of much needed service to others. There is no way that I will sit around and do nothing for very long because that is not the kind of person who I am. It is my hope to get the chance to sub once in a while for some of the districts in this area, but the bus to that opportunity will be driven by how healthy the world finds itself when school begins again in the fall. I also have given some serious thought to perhaps finding elderly folks who are looking for someone to assist them with their daily needs like grocery shopping, house cleaning, meal preparation, and other necessities. I enjoyed my nearly 10 years as a CNA back in Kansas while I worked at a long term care facility and grew to love caring for the elders there. I also plan to look for ways to volunteer here in Newkirk within our Kay County community. What a blessing it will be for Mike and I to get the chance to perhaps travel a bit when it is safe once again, and of course, I look forward to spending more time with 3 little girls who call me their "Grandma Peggy". There is no shortage of things to do, especially now in a world that finds itself in plenty of hurt.
For today, there are boxes to unpack of belongings from my classroom and that will be my first order of business. I'm reminded of my sister Sherry who retired after being an Oklahoma educator for well more than 40 years. She hated having to give up and probably would have gone on teaching forever if her tired body would have allowed it. From her fourth grade classroom on her final day on the job, all those many boxes of her school things went straight to the spare bedroom at their home in Altus. There they would remain unopened for several years while the dust fell upon them. A couple of summers before she died, Sherry had me come over one day and look through some of the boxes to see if there was anything I could use for my third grade students at Big Pasture. After that, she did finally begin to go through them and discard much of what she brought home that last day of school in May of 2010. I didn't understand why she did that at first or why it was that she couldn't let go of her life as an educator. Now I do understand because I too have felt the angst and pain that can go with it.
And so it begins.
There is a plan ahead.
My eyes are wide open as I wait for God to show me the next chapter in life that is mine.
From 2010 and a lifetime ago~
I finally understand how she felt that year. It is a tough thing to do.
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