Month: June 2019

On Running

A couple of months ago I had the pleasure of being in the same 5K race as my granddaughter, Lorelai. The race was aptly named “The Tortoise and Hare 5K”. Of course, she trounced me! I tried so hard, but I couldn’t catch her, and she is only seven years old! Later, when my daughter posted separate pics of both of us on social media, I began to see my problem. My run appeared to be kind of a shuffle,  or staggering, toward the finish line, while Lorelai’s feet didn’t even seem to touch the ground! So, I have learned from that experience and now try to pick my feet up more!

I think I was almost 40 when I began running at the instigation of my friend, Bonnie. I remember that first run with Bonnie I kept thinking things like ‘Are we there yet?’, ‘How far are we going, anyway’, and ‘Surely, this is far enough!’. But that was about half of what I do now, which is 5K. And I just run once a week, on the weekend – sticking to that weekend schedule because, hey, now that I am retired it’s one of the few routines I have left, so I seem to be kind of clinging to it. And for me, more is not better, since I got a painful case of plantar fasciitis the one time that I tried to do a 10K.

I’m not running because it’s the funnest thing you can do. My motivation comes from a small battered and stained clipping that I’ve had stuck on my refrigerator for a couple of decades now that reports on the results of a 20 year study of running over the age of 50. That study says those who run cut their risk of premature death in half. It also found that those who run have less cardiovascular disease, fewer cancer deaths, less cognitive decline, and better immunity. Even their joints are in better condition! The article says that running is the single activity with the most bang for the longevity buck. So, there I go. And there is a side benefit in that, not infrequently, during a run, I find you can get into kind of a zen-like state, where it is just you and the surface, and nothing else matters! Except for cars…Don’t zone out and not notice the cars!

Lona

Learning to Do Nothing

So I almost made it through my first week of retirement feeling good about everything but a couple of days ago some unease reared its head. I thought I might be missing social interactions at work so I went to see my friend Linda. Linda showed me her system for getting things done – basically a notebook and a way to separate out long term and daily tasks. That was good but didn’t really solve my problem. Upon closer self-examination, I think my problem is that I haven’t learned to relax and be OK with nothing going on! This is another thing to practice getting good at!

Plein Air Painting at Marshall Hall

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day so I decided to paint a landscape at Marshall Hall. In Piscataway National Park, Marshall Hall is the site of the ruined colonial house of George Washington’s doctor. Others may remember it at as a one-time amusement park. Anyway, the scene attracted me because of the high contrast shadows under the trees. After a couple of hours this is what I ended up with. i

I wasn’t really satisfied with it because it seems like the values aren’t quite right in the near tree. Also that tree is not as “present” as in needs to be. So I’m not quite happy with the painting but I also had thoughts that just the practice of doing it brings you closer to a future successful painting. I’ll either try to fix it a little or paint over it. It’s all a learning process! While I was painting, I had people stop by and complement it or at least complement me for making the attempt. One lady watched me a while and said her mother used to paint. I saw then that the end product painting of a painting session is not the only way you can please people, that just giving people a chance to see you doing it can make them happy. We need active pursuits – or at least to be able to see others being active. Plein air painting is a great one because it combines being outdoors, looking at attractive scenery and producing something. You just need a small travel easel, some paints (I used six colors here) and brushes, and a surface. If the perfect picture doesn’t show up now – it’s there in the future, waiting for you at another painting session.