Happy December everyone! I hope you have plenty of celebrations and family/friend time to look forward to, in this month of festivities. 

For me the countdown to retirement is in its final push – work is busy as you can imagine, as I not only keep working away at my job, but also have to think and plan about handing it over to another. In 2 weeks my successor assumes my role, and I will spend my last 2 weeks educating her and making for a smooth handover. I feel just fantastic about all of this; my days are just flying by; people are saying nice things to me about me; I have absolutely no regrets or second thoughts about what I am doing. 

I have been hearing about a couple of people I know, who will also be retiring shortly, that they seem to be struggling a bit with their decisions; backtracking and saying they want to continue to stay on and work part-time; seeming to be having trouble “letting go”. I don’t understand this, as they chose to retire – it was not asked of them, nor forced upon them in any way. These people are also men, and that may be part of the difference?

For me, work has always been something I do and never something I am. I would love to hear how others retirees felt as their work life ended – was it something you embraced wholeheartedly? Or did you have mixed emotions? Did you choose, or was it chosen for you?

The other thing I am most excited about (besides anticipating my new, retired life) is an online art journalling course I signed up for. A couple of years ago, I signed up for and wholeheartedly enjoyed a year-long course by the same artist, called Mandala Days. Julie Gibbons is an artist residing in Scotland who works primarily with mandalas. Please check out her website (linked, in her name) if interested!

In a few weeks (on December 21, the winter solstice), I will be beginning a new course of hers, called Mandala Magic: Alignment. This course again focuses on mandalas and art journalling, and tying the lessons into the 8 “seasons” – the solar cycle – of the ancient pagan wheel of the year. This is so up my alley, it isn’t even funny!

I love the word Alignment so much that it will be THE WORD for my life going forward into 2020. Yes, my word of the year! My big intention for 2020 (and beyond) is to bring my life better into Alignment with my values and my intentions for how I want to live, going forward. During the next few days, I am planning on drawing up a mind map using the word Alignment to further suss out what it means to me and how that will impact/guide/inform this next important phase of my life.

So that’s what I’ve been up to, lately. If you care to share your thoughts on retirement, goals and intentions for 2020, art, whatever – I’d love to hear from you!

Rock on,

The WB