Author: Admin

A lifestyle change about six years ago was to start walking to Santa Monica College’s High Tech Training Center four days a week when classes are in session. The city has an alternate transportation program that pays me $30 a month to NOT drive to work.

“Walking brings me back to myself”.

Laurette Mortimer

About four years ago I discovered a simple, quiet, early morning walk to the ocean shore. From our condo, the walk takes me all the way down Pearl St. to Lincoln Blvd. After crossing Lincoln, I take Strand St. all the way to Santa Monica Beach. The walk is two and a half miles each way. I’m usually listening to birds or a book on Audible with ear buds.

I take the beach walk on average about three times a week.

A criteria I’ve developed for myself is that where I retire, has to be a very walk-able location. Of course I’d love to stay in Santa Monica but it’s so expensive that I’ve started researching alternate locations.

Most folks dislike (maybe even hate) L.A. because of the traffic. Walking is a sweet lifestyle alternative.

Here’s a moment….just sitting on my sofa looking out the window. After seeing a leaf fall, I decided to use my phone and video the scene and hope for another to fall.

Staring out the window is what I enjoy about traveling. Out the window of plane, or especially a train. I prefer the beautiful picture window in the sleeping car roomettes that I usually travel in.

Next week will mark the third year of a lifestyle change I plan to keep. The change is to go off on an adventure by myself. JoAn, bless her heart, has been supportive and Ellie understands this need of mine. If it seems selfish to you, my guess is you are under 70 years old. (comment if I’m wrong)

• Jan. 2017 – Flew to Singapore, then Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for 2 weeks.
• Jan. 2018 – Coast Starlight Amtrak rain to Portland, OR for one week.
• Jan. 2019 – Fly to New Orleans for two days, then take the Sunset Limited Amtrak train back to Union Station, LA.

I find traveling alone…being present for one’s self.

Although multi-tasking has its place from time to time. However, a huge change in my life in recent years has been slowing down, doing one things at a time and being consumed by it.

Cooking is meditative and I treat it just that way. Every action, from chopping vegetables to mincing fresh garlic, it’s like breathing slowly and doing what I consider restful, no, blissful activity.

Alice Water’s Master Class (a Christmas gift from my wife, JoAn) speaks directly to what I’m referring to in this blissful state of activity.

A lifestyle change made so long ago, I can’t remember, was to not schedule ANYTHING on Saturdays unless out of my reasonable control.

Reasonable control, in my mind, means I have to have a pretty good, solid, let’s-not-be-selfish reason why I’m scheduling something.

Yesterday, I didn’t even blog. (as originally promised) I consider this blog a work in progress so I forgive myself.

Another excellent lifestyle change, forgiving yourself. (for another time)

Freeing up Saturday for things like contemplating the pure beautiful of moss growing in between sculpted bark of an oak tree. (If you know for sure, please comment)

Saturdays, I may golf a little, walk to the beach, read on the patio, ride the light rail system to random destinations. I’m free to do anything. Practicing for retirement:)

Yesterday’s post was a big decision on my part of course. Starting a third marriage and child-rearing in your mid 50s is, well, a bit crazy. I’m guessing most men in their mid-50s are either looking to rest & relax OR the opposite, called a mid-life crisis. If mine was a mid-life crisis, I dare say, I’m enjoying it way too much.

The only point I want to make today is in the title of this post. Decisions we make along our journey ALL matter! How we feel about our decisions matters even more. If we don’t like our decisions, it’s like, we don’t like ourselves. Own your decisions AND feel free to ‘decide’ another direction.

By my mid-50s, (I’m 69 now) I had made countless decisions, big and small, wise and stupid, fruitful and empty. They are all linked in the long chain of events that makes up my life.

What weighs more – fate or decisions?

I will say (please comment) decisions weigh more. We decide a certain direction in life that put us in a place and circumstance that fate ‘toys’ with. Good and bad shit happen beyond our control, but the ‘where’ we are at- both physically and spiritually is our own doing. Weigh in:)

I’ve been off for a few weeks so what do I do different on my first day back to work? Nothing really. My sleep schedule for the last five years has been 8:00pm to 4:00am. Works for me since I spent over 50 years watching TV in at night and no longer feel a need for this…(we can YouTube SNL highlights or any other TV happenings) I’m using these quiet, early morning hours to write this post, exercise, catch up on my news, go for a walk while listening to an Audible book.

OK, one difference…I will prepare my breakfast and lunch for work. The healthy breakfasts I prepare are photographed often and feature one above.

Eating later in the morning makes sense to me because I’m just not hungry. I’ll eat my breakfast at my desk at around 9 or 10 am and sometimes bring my lunch home if I’m not hungry enough at the end of my workday.

One thing about going back to work after a relaxing time off…heightened stimulation! Though I cherish the open spontaneity of days off, I love the ‘unexpectedness’ in the work I do. Not to mention the service to our students. I will not go into all that today. Maybe in upcoming posts:)

Reflecting on 2018 highlights (and I was blessed with many) this book signing at our church was a lifestyle change that propelled me into starting this blog. What an honor to have folks take time from their busy lives to read my book!

Please know the process, editing, re-writes and mistakes along the way were incredibly painful…completely offset by the final accomplishment.

Habits are comfortable to most of us. Of course habits come in two varieties, good and bad. Important life changing – habit changing in 2018 for me…writing everyday IN…drinking martinis everyday OUT!

No martinis since October 4th, 2018 and striving to stay martini-free. Lost 12 lbs., sleep and feel better!

Having a list of good and bad habits is an inventory worth examining from time to time. Shit…sounds a bit preachy…time to stop for today:)

The last day of any year can generate as much hope as the first day of the year. It’s starts with a promise to yourself. Now remember, lying to yourself is what makes therapists of all types thrive.

I promise to write a post everyday

“Write every day even if it is just a paragraph.”

Michael Connelly

Thanks Michael, you have taken a certain amount of pressure off me for those inevitable days I wake up feeling like shit or dead.

I’m excited this morning because Neil Patel

neilpatel.com

helped me find a niche for this blog that is broad enough for a big audience and specific enough to draw some attention.

I embrace lifestyle changes, blogging everyday is an example of one…

Most of my friends and family would hopefully agree that I have embraced lifestyle changes in my 69 years on this planet.

In upcoming posts I will sprinkle my own life changes with facts, images, ideas you may take under consideration. If nothing else, I hope to make you laugh occasionally on your journey.

Drive safe tonight and HAPPY NEW YEAR’S!