Advent Calendar Blog – Day 1 – It Was In The Cards!

We have had a wonderful year, and as I reflect on our blessings, it occurs to me that I have not shared much on our blog, despite having a great year filled with discovery, dear friends and family and new journeys. Many of you have asked about the next instalments.

Not all journeys involve travelling. Some journeys are more of a hike deep into your soul, discovering who you are, and some are journeys about healing. For sure, each journey you undertake helps you grow, and makes you stronger.

With Christmas being around the corner, I thought I would deliver a blog story each day, and package them up like an advent calendar for you. For the next 24 days, I invite you to open a tiny window into my world through this blog, and hear about the travels and exploration we experienced in 2019 and hopefully it will leave you inspired, but if anything, it will have entertained you for 5 minutes and given you an update.

When we started 2019, I had NO idea where we were heading, other than it was an election year and there was the possibility that Pierre might be working, and we had 2 cruises booked for the fall. Newly retired and no longer travelling, I had no clue how I was going to fill my days. I spent the first 2 months of the year making our new home comfortable, adjusting the few items we had kept to fit our new lifestyle. I am not sure what that lifestyle was, but at least retirement meant we had control over our own schedule and could decide on the new routines we wanted.

It “felt” like we wanted routine and and activities that would bring structure into our lives but it also felt like we wanted lots of downtime, to just breathe and relax and get closer to our dear friends and family. I learned quickly that too much free time can be dangerous, and lead down an unhealthy path for me. I will go into that later.

Since retirement gives you the opportunity to fill your days doing stuff you enjoy doing and not doing things that others want you or expect you to do, I needed to figure out what makes me happy and do more of it – a lot of it!

I am not sure when I realised that I actually enjoyed playing cards, but I think it was a few years ago with my Aunt Claudette who taught me a couple of new games that appealed to my competitive nature and desire to win. Gone was the anxiety of not understanding the game, or feeling unskilled. Suddenly, I am seeking other like-minded to play Canasta (Hand and Foot), or Little Cards (a contract game) and the usual Hearts, Cribbage, Knock-out etc. I regularly enjoy playing with my family and to be honest, I wish my husband played more.

I have learned that you have to create your life and go after what you want, because it rarely just lands in your lap. Now I get together with 3 other retirees every second Wednesday and fill 4 hours chatting and catching up on our lives, while playing cards, and having a light lunch. I treasure those cards dates, and I am hopeful that it will continue in the new year. Oh and I am putting out an invitation to anyone else who wants to play cards to reach out to me, because, well, playing cards really makes me happy!

“C’est a qui le tour??”