La Vita è Buona - Life is Good!

My husband and I have spent the past week camping in a small town in northern Georgia called Ellijay. Those friends I've mentioned in past posts, he a former minister who handled my mother's funeral and she the daughter of my mother's best friend, have property on which they leave their large fifth-wheel camper year-round. After inviting us, more than once, to "come visit," we finally took them up on their offer and have spent a very enjoyable five-days tooling around the Georgia Highlands.

Me and my husband at the top of Amicalola Falls in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Our friends are semi-retired and both teach at a college in our town in Florida, so they are limited to the amount of time they can spend in the mountains. But they do spend their summers retreating to the slower pace afforded by those who enjoy this crisp clean air.

It's really not surprising to hear them respond, "Life is good," when asked how they're doing.

During our visit, we also hooked up with some additional friends who, after retiring, became seasonal residents of our area. We met them for lunch in northern Georgia, close to their summer home in North Carolina. When we asked how they are doing, the husband replied, "I have to say, life is good!"

My husband and I looked at each other and smiled, knowing we were both thinking the same thing: "Of course life is good in your now sterile and effortless environment. How could it not be?"

So, what takes a person to that "life-is-good place?"
Is it something as simple as the mountain air? Or is it the more complicated phase of life known as retirement? Is "life-is-good" a place of permanence, or is it a temporary locale that requires constant re-evaluation?
Some of you reading this might think that's a no-brainer; of course it's retirement that has brought these two couples to the same place in thinking. Perhaps that's partially true, but I think it's a little more complicated than simply registering for Social Security and pension benefits. I think you also have to be ready to accept that new phase in your life and then find new purpose.

It's certainly no secret that I've struggled to find some semblance of a happy place since my mother passed away, and I know for sure the carrot being dangled in front of me right now - that phase of life known as retirement - would not be the answer. I would still need purpose.

Both of my parents found their way of taking the cards that were dealt and making the most of life.
My father had his very serious and intense side, but for the most part, he was a happy-go-lucky kind of guy (I'm grateful my son has inherited his grandfather's disposition). We were not a family of means -  not by a long shot - but Daddy knew how to find his "life-is-good" place and make the most of it when he could. He loved to go fishing in the Atlantic Ocean, which became his place of solitude. To him, there was no more beautiful place on this earth than the hills of Southern Illinois, his place of acceptance. Throughout his life and into his retirement, my father kept a well manicured yard, working nearly everyday tirelessly and with pride, his place of purpose. And, although my parents often bickered, I do know Daddy adored Mother, his place of love. No one single part of his life put my father in a permanently "life-is-good" place, but together, all of those components made him who he was - a "life-is-good" kind of guy.

My mother came from a completely different background than my father. Mother's daddy died when she was only seven or eight-years old, leaving her mother to provide for six children. From those early struggles came Mother's acceptance of "her lot in life" (as she used to say). I can say with complete honesty that I cannot think of a time Mother ever voiced any disappointment in her life, wished she had made other decisions, or wasn't satisfied with her role as a wife, mother, sister or friend. I can't say she was a "life-is-good" kind of woman, but she was most certainly a "life-is-what-it-is-so-accept-it-and-make-the-best-of-it" kind of mother.

This Florida girl believes she belongs in the mountains.
I've said it over and over for tens of years, and Mom always hoped it would come to be for me.
It is the peacefulness of the whispering of the trees as the wind blows through them, the concert of songs performed by the variety of birds, the babbling brooks when sitting creek-side, the graceful deer coming out of hiding as the sun sets, the ever-changing landscape, all of that and more, calls to the "life-is-good" side of me. But so does purpose.

Which brings me back to the couple we are visiting. In their retirement to that "life-is-good" place, they have found the balance that I can see I will also need. They continue to teach part-time, they continue to work for the greater good of our community by volunteering for the causes that mean the most to them, and along with being good parents, siblings, grandparents and friends, they are enjoying the rewards of their labor.

There's not been a single moment of wasted vacation time - we've seen waterfalls, tasted wine (way more than we should have tasted), shopped, chatted with locals, tested the apples about to be harvested this season and watched the deer (oh yes, and we crafted!).

Wine tasting in Dahlonega, Georgia.

Oh dear, the deer! In this particular area, hunting is prohibited, so the deer are free to roam and are quite comfortable doing just that.

What's not to love about these gorgeous creatures?

We've had a wonderful visit and look forward to doing it again, someday. More than that, I've seen what I hope will also be my retirement in a few years - for the remainder of my life to be spent in purposeful contentment.

 

 

I love you Mom and Dad, and miss you bunches.