Back in pie mode

Do you ever go through phases when you don’t do something, even though you love it and want to do it and think it would be great to do it but you just don’t do it?  It’s been that way for me most of this year around something I love to do:  making pie.  I hadn’t really made one in months.  I just wasn’t in pie mode.

Why?  Can’t say for sure except that something in me said:  not now.  Wait.  

I think it’s OK to put things on the back burner sometimes, to let priorities shift around the multiple things for which we are responsible or to which we are connected.  For me, the main thing is to stay clear about the reasons things are shifting:  to be clear about the emotional and other factors operating.

Looking back, I can see that the primary force in my life this spring was the fact that I was preparing for retirement.  I’ve been working for 45 years.  Mostly I’ve worked for either myself or for social-profit organizations (formerly called non-profits) on behalf of health and social justice issues.  I’ve never made much money and haven’t saved enough for retirement.  

So, retirement feels like a huge stretch, one I’m not entirely ready for but one that I’m embracing.  It’s taken a lot of energy to finish up my most recent contract with the NM State Dept. of Health.  It’s taken energy to reconstruct my self-image, to start this next phase of life as an open book waiting to be written.

What does this mean for you?  You can expect more from me now:  more pie ideas, more tips and tricks, more fun.  And I’m going to start “teaching pie” one of these days.  Watch for that!  Maybe someone you know would love to come to the Land of Enchantment for pie camp.  Now that’s “pie mode!”