Oscar the cat was the one who gained most from my being home today. He got to spend more time on my lap, as I lingered over the morning paper.
Decompression didn’t stick. I dropped by the office to return some files I had accidentally taken home. No feeling of regret. It’s what Ellen Goodman described in her final column, as “the Graceful Exit,” which “means leaving what’s over without denying its validity or its past importance in our lives.”
Other wise words from Goodman, “Now, when people ask what are you going to do next, I am tempted to co-opt Susan Stamberg’s one-word answer when she left her anchor post at NPR: ‘Less.’ I am more tempted to say, simply, ‘We’ll see.’”
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About stillalife
I retired June 30, 2010 after working for 40 years in the field of education and most recently doing school public relations/community outreach in a mid-size urban school district. I wrote for superintendents and school board members. Now I'm writing for me and I hope for you. In this blog, I offer my own views coupled with the latest research on how to preserve our physical and mental health as we age, delve into issues most of us over 50 can relate to like noticing wrinkles and forgetting where we left our keys, discuss the pros and cons of different ways to engage our minds and bodies after we leave the workplace, and throw in an occasional book review, all peppered with a touch of humor, irony, and just plain silliness. Also, I'm on the third draft of my second novel since retirement.
Oscar the cat was the one who gained most from my being home today. He got to spend more time on my lap, as I lingered over the morning paper. 
Still Life 