" well, it's all right, if you live life as you please...well it's all right, doing the best that you can, long as you lend a hand...i'm just happy to be here, happy to be alive....well, it's all right, even if you are old and gray...you still have something to say." end of the line, by the traveling wilburys

i just read an article about helping cancer patients " get back to normal" in their lives.  as cancer patients, we have a new normal- life has changed for us and will never be quite the same. still, there is a part of us that longs for this sense of normalcy that we had  before the big C.

i have just recently retired. admittedly a little sooner than i had initially  planned. i enjoyed my work- i like helping people- but having had cancer twice, i decided that i needed to 1. reduce some of the stress in my life and  2. enjoy my life- do some things that i had been wanting to do but had not had the time to do. my husband gladly followed suit, so now we are two happy retirees doing some things that we enjoy. it is an adjustment, though. most days one or both of us says" wow, we are really retired, aren't we? this is great!"

i always pictured retirees as  being in their 80s and sitting around the house, on the couch preferably, eating dinner on a TV tray while watching the news. o.k., sometimes we do eat dinner while watching the news ( PBS news hour, to be precise). but my husband and i do not do a whole lot of sitting around, otherwise. getting back to the article on helping cancer patients achieve a more " normal" life,the article stated that  the top thing that we cancer patients do to try to achieve some normalcy from our past lives, is to return to some craft that we loved doing before our illness. strangely enough, i had taken a stained glass course about ten years ago and loved it. then, life became more hectic -(work and family obligations) and there just  was no time for doing stained glass.

i honestly felt a longing to return to stained glass making. i was afraid to try again, i will admit. self doubt kept me from pursing it. but thankfully my daughter would not take any of my objections seriously, and she found a stained glass class for me to take. it was a wonderful experience. no, i am very far from being good at stained glass making, but i am decent enough to have fun with it, and perhaps make a few pieces for my family and friends eventually. this led to my husband deciding to make a " tiny house" stained glass studio outside for me. ( we do not want our grandchildren exposed to the lead based solder or ingesting or stepping on glass shards- believe me, the shards go everywhere!). my husband and i are both enjoying the planning and building of this studio. when it is finished, i will post pictures. joanna gaines will be so jealous, she will have to have chip make one for her!

i also have taken a beeswax candle making class, and have learned to make soap. my husband has two bee hives ( which will eventually provide beeswax for my candles) and is having fun going to local bee keeper meetings. the best thing that my husband and i are  able to do now is  to spend time with our grandchildren. we can also attend school programs. when we were both working, it was nearly impossible to get time off, and then only if you planned about 3 months in advance.

i still enjoy helping people, just in a different format. i think my crafting is helping me feel more "normal". i appreciate all of the time, quality time, that i now  get to spend with my husband, the  rest of my family and my friends.  my daughter looked at my calendar that is posted in our kitchen, and said " mom, you are busier than i am!". when people ask me if i am finding things to do in my retirement, i am ready with answers. a lot of them.