Step Away From the Cake

 I meditate every morning. I get up, unload the dishwasher, make a cup of coffee, then meditate. I like to sit around after I meditate and just enjoy the quiet of the early morning. It really is like the calm before the storm that usually becomes my day. As I was sitting there this morning, enjoying the cool air and quiet of 5:30am on a Saturday, I started thinking how weird it is to know things are you last things. For example, we plan on this being our last house. Unless something unforeseen happens, we will both die here. I'm in my last job before I retire.  Looking at Mavy and realizing he may well be the last dog we ever own. It's kind of weird to have spent your life making plans for the future and suddenly the future is here and there aren't a whole lot of plans to be made anymore.  It all started when I was looking at Mavy and thinking about how dogs come into our lives and really teach us something if we are open to it. Mana taught us how to be good dog parents. ...

 I have said to myself recently that I have reached the point in my life where I don't have big plans. I always had plans to find a better job, make more money, go to school, things like that. Well, I'm at the point in my life where I have most of those things. I have a job I love and I will likely stay at until I eventually retire. I'm making decent money. Could I make more? Maybe, but I don't want to work as hard as it would require me to do that. Work-life balance has become too important to me at this point. I used to want to take classes and learn new things. While I still want to learn new things, taking classes is not what I want. I had pursued a PhD, but stopped. I thought I wanted another master's degree, but no. I'm at the point in my life where I'm good with the way things are and while I want to keep moving forward, I'm not really chasing anything anymore. As a side note, I lived most of my life feeling like I was chasing something. I constan...