Mason jars, the 2023 edition

how are your filling yours?

1st of July 2023.

Let that sink in.

The second part of the year begins today. Did I take adequate advantage of the first half?

I view life as a whole bunch of big rocks, some sand, and a Mason jar. Activities in life are items that may fit into the jar, each big item with a labels. I may more may or not parttake of all of them but it’s worth considering them.

Been anywhere? Traveled some which was great, although I don’t think I went anywhere I had never been before. Get half credit for spending a weekend in Minneapolis where I had been but fifty years ago in the winter where we did not see much light. Certainly met a lot of new people.

Health check? Yes, I did the dreaded colonoscopy that those of us of a certain age confront. Thank goodness my friend had one the prior week, mentioning artificial grape flavour these days beats the taste last time. Learned to give myself monthly migraine treatments. Oh, and did the umpteenth COVID vaccine.

Yes, I am addressing a couple of health issues that one largely encounters with the privilege of aging. Privilege of aging no longer seems a distant concept but one of substance. Both issues have solutions, even if they are annoying. Daily walks seem to help every bit of it.

Keeping busy during retirement? My husband noted just this week, discussing a project a long-time colleague and I are developing that I am just too intense (he always phrases things far more elegantly than I) to reject new challenges even if they complicate something else. I have already embraced the website for my photography, dipped my toe in selling that photography, and continued with substack and webinars full bore. I did reluctantly withdraw from my beloved Cornell in Washington course but it was time to sacrifice the pain of driving into the District with the perpetual fear of parking problems. They were such fun seminars, however.

I am fully committed to the National Bureau of Asian Research (www.nbr.org) Board of Directors and National War College Alumni Association activities.

Check in regularly on my peeps? Most important thing I do—period. Whether it’s a friend who helped me move a mattress on top of a car (it didn’t go quite as badly as it could have but was touch and go on a four line highway) or a relative confronting a health scare or someone wrapped in the tentacles of sadness, this year I again see that relationships rather than money, places or things make the life matter.

We get 182 more days this year. I want to squeeze in as much life as I can, preferably in a more rational, sane manner than I often do things (which I means I usually overdo everything).

A couple of things I am especially keen on.

International School of Bangkok reunion in August. Haven’t attended but one in fifty years but am going this year. Even if it is Florida. (Carol, when do you arrive?)

Seattle with the National Bureau of Asian Research Board meetings. I certainly hope they have no wildfire smoke as it’s hard to see anything more spectacular than Mt. Rainier or Mt. Adams in the distance. Simply magical views. A girl can’t go that far without the views, can she??

Malta. MALTA. Talk about something out of a novel but our friends invited us to see their life in Malta which we are doing. How cool is that?

A BIG birthday in October.

I am sure other things will make us smile in those 182 days but life is not just these big rocks in the jar labelled 2023. No, life is really all of the beautiful, if irreglar and often discoloured, grains of sand surrounding the rocks in that jar. The jar is sturdy but not unbreakable.

Come six months from today, if I am lucky, life will hand me an empty jar to begin filling it anew. What I do with that jar is a different question.

The most important filler for the jar, I reiterate, is the people who make it all so worthwhile. They are integral to fulfilling life’s ambitions, options, and pain.

How is your jar looking?FIN