03/24/2022
Lynn Murphy Mark
I’m new at this blog business, but I am having fun learning! I think this could only happen in my retirement days. Yesterday I had lunch with three other retirees and we talked about the phenomenon of how retirement unrolls. When formal career/work is behind us, time passes like this: at first it’s go-go, then slow-go, to, eventually, no-go. I am floating between go-go and slow-go and I hope I stay here for a good long time.
Anyway, writing these blogs is getting to be a habit. When you are my age – over seven decades old – there are a lot of life and travel experiences crammed in these neurons. A friend of mine used to say that there are two kinds of minds: one is like a file drawer with thoughts neatly categorized in folders. The second kind is like a lava lamp with thoughts that bubble up into consciousness. My mind is of the lava lamp kind, which means that lots of surprising things pop up. Some are worthy of consideration, some are flat out funny, and some are a waste of time. Anyway, my point is that my lava lamp floats up random thoughts, some of which become words on paper.
If anyone had told me that I would become a writer in my old age I would have laughed. I enjoy reading the way words are put together by talented authors. I think I can recognize good writing when I see it. These two statements have been true for most of my life. I can treasure the experience of a good read and get absolutely lost in its pages. I just never saw myself as someone who would be filling pages with my own word work. But I have two published books and now I can write more short pieces and call them blogs. Who knew?
When I was a hospice nurse, families would ask me to speak at the funeral. Those eulogies were my first attempts to capture people and moments and put them into words that meant something to others. Giving a eulogy is a serious responsibility and I grew to love and honor the opportunities to be a part of someone’s send-off. When I wrote the eulogy for my friend, Kemet, his wife, Katie, called me a bard. That is a huge compliment. My dictionary says a bard is “one of an ancient Celtic order of composers and reciters of poetry.” I do have Irish roots.
Now, almost 8 years into retirement, I find myself trying out a new endeavor – not a career, but a pastime. Writing short pieces seems to fit the way my mind works. I have always been a big picture, see-the-forest-not-the-trees, kind of thinker. I have long appreciated those people who are so good with the details. So, I’m not a novel writer, just a short story person. If you read these little pieces, I thank you sincerely, and hope they are meaningful.