Transformations
It has been a month since I retired from the world of Corporate America and started my new life as a middle-aged woman, author and hobby farmer.
This was one of many life changes that I have made over the course of the past few years and one that will undoubtedly have a major impact on my life well into my senior years.
Although my recent retirement may seem abrupt to some, the actual beginning of this "transformation" started way back in 2010, when my father unexpectedly passed away. This event was rather shocking to me and was the main catalyst for the changes I have made since that time.
Immediately after my father's death, my mother was taken ill and hospitalized with a life-threatening kidney condition. I feared I would lose her, too.
Thankfully, with the love and support of my family, she made a full recovery and blossomed into an extremely spunky, independent senior citizen. She just celebrated her 83rd birthday a few days ago and for this, I am very thankful.
After much soul-searching, I made the decision to take family medical leave from work and to be with my mother during her health crisis. When I went back to work a few months later, I realized I needed to live closer to my family and subsequently resigned from a lengthy career at
Costco.
This was a very scary and stressful time filled with doubts and "what ifs". But, with a new found internal strength and the moral support of my husband, we decided to move over 3500 miles to the same area where my mother and sisters lived.
Neither one of us had a job at this point in time and there were really no good prospects to speak of. We were charting unknown territory and instead of getting all stressed out about it, we resolved to just relax and enjoy the time off.
During our self-imposed "time off", one thing led to another and before we knew it, my husband and I became the proud owners of a 15-acre farm in North Florida. This was a dream come true for us, since we had always planned on having some acreage in the country "one day".
I was fortunate enough in early 2011 to be recruited by a consulting firm and subsequently was hired as an IT systems engineer. The best part was that I was able to work on a full-time basis from home. I could not have imagined a better set-up than working at a very prestigious job
and working from home just a few short steps from the barnyard. I thoroughly loved this job and never dreamed the company would be such an awesome place to work.
Which brings me to where I am today.
Just a few short weeks ago, I retired from that wonderful job and have jumped head first into farming and writing - along with traveling when I have the time.
Amazingly, I am not stressed much at all about this major life change. I am resolute that everything will work out as it should. There will be trials and tribulations (there always are). But, I firmly believe that this promises to be one of the most rewarding chapters of my life, as it is the one where I can truly write my own story and maybe even share some of those stories with all of you.
The main things I have learned over the course of the past five years is that "everything happens for a reason" and that destiny and fate have much more impact on our lives than we would like to think.
With that, I leave you with this thought ...
From this day forward, may the unfolding chapters of your own life be well-written and sprinkled with positive life lessons. ~S.A. Molteni
Sugar, flour and fruit were in short supply and it would be another week before she could afford more ingredients. If she did not get them back and deliver them to her grandmother, the sales at ‘Grannies Cafe’ would plummet and they would most likely not make the rent.
Those bears were really getting into grooming, obsessively and compulsively so. What triggered in their brains for them to continue this behavior, she had no idea. But, it was her best chance to grab the goods and make a run for it.
She leaped into action and in one continuous swoop, retrieved the basket and dove through the same window she had used to enter the cabin. Like a ninja in the night, she was gone in an instant. Not one bear noticed her stealthy departure and they all continued grooming.
That was too easy, she thought to herself as she scurried down the path to grandmother’s house.
“Whoa!” the wolf barked as he stepped onto the path in front of her, the basket falling to the ground and the contents scattering.
“What the heck …” she stammered as she tried to understand what had just happened.
The bears looked on from their front porch, each eating a fresh blueberry muffin and wondering why the little blond girl had stolen their basket of pine cones.