“Next Thing You Know…”

Hello and Good Day. Hope You are doing well today -and- enjoying your summer with wonderful moments with your Family and Friends.

Also, Thank You for taking a moment to stop by and read my articles… much appreciated!

There is a song on the charts; “Next Thing You Know,” sung by Jordan Davis. Without citing the entire song’s lyrics and ruining the song, (You definitely don’t want to hear me sing-lol), the song takes us along our life’s journey, the wonderful milestones and how quickly life and those wonderful moments come/go; “…cause, next thing You know.”

I mentioned I was not going to cite the lyrics. However, this one verse highlights this extremely important moment I have reached in my life’s milestones: “next thing you know You get to know your wife again and You’re more in love than you’ve ever been with a lot of years of remember whens and still some down the road…“

In two previous articles; “Where does time go, it does not slow down in retirement” -and- “Reflections,” I spoke to how time does not slow down once we give up the insane, crazy 40+ hours work week -and- our moments of reflection of our past years help us settle in to where we are now in life. However, after I re-read those articles, I realized I did not focus on the re-emergence of falling back in love again and the focus upon Our Life!”

This falling back in love again does not mean I’ve fallen out of love and returning. It means feeling that special butterfly in your stomach feeling; that insane can’t stop thinking about you / can’t be without you feeling; -and- living those “first moments” together everyday. Now, I know you are saying this should be how you feel everyday -and- that’s the point! When we are working, we (sometimes) pause that feeling because we are too busy with everything and trying to keep up -and- if we are not cautious, we will fall victim to that same trap when we are retired….“cause, next thing you know.”

When we became “empty nesters” (that’s been quite some time ago), Denise and I did take advantage of the freedom in our scheduling. However, a BIG mistake I continued to make was allowing my work to interfere with that freedom. Instead of taking the time once devoted to Justin’s and Kristin’s schedules, with them on their own life’s journey, I allowed work to creep into those time blocks during the week -and- then the weekend was more of the same; being the “weekend warrior” to get things done around the house I did not do during the week. So, instead of using the full (new) time available, it was only an incremental increase in time we enjoyed.

Now, in this phase of my life and even though I am referring to it as ‘The Encore’ phase of life, after my first year and a half, I am finding myself falling victim to my old habit of settling in to a routine. Granted, the routine is so much better now than when I was working. However, it is becoming routine. There is nothing wrong with the new routine becoming a more relaxed life style.

However, we should be cautious to not allow the new life to just become a new routine. Recall, that “chase” we possessed in our earlier and previous years and the energy, fun, enjoyment we had/received? Keep that alive! Wait a minute, we should seek to keep that more alive than ever!

And as the song goes; “… cause, next thing you know.”

“Never quit searching, never settle and never give up seeking your greater purpose!“