Being a good observer of character definitely provides a challenging test for me in making the right decisions about going about my life. So far so good it seemed for me in the career past in finding success with this character matter in my own methodically patient way. For I can Ireflect back to my teaching days involving deep level questioning of my students to gain their positive participation in class. Nowadays, I’m similarly finding it successful to look beyond the superficial like or dislike of one’s personal appearance or complaint filled ranting and try to help others I meet feel some good in their life for themselves. In doing so, however, I’ve found that for many people, their search for a brighter path through such daily struggle in their life can be concealed in an outwardly contrasting way.

So examine four mural photos I’ve displayed from our past travels. For these are the kind of questions that I’d be asking to determine their character if I met them consecutively for real? What dreams for success does this unsmiling person of color really have? When these three faces turn ugly, what kind of better life are these young people trying to find? What hopeful thoughts cross a sad looking woman’s mind as she hugs a favorite animal? Why might those struggling immigrants in a new country cause them to desperately cup their hands in prayer?

I never assume that something I do for play will be considered fun. So let’s just say I found recreational leisure today in my one mile walk along Old Tampa Bay in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. But given that I focused on the challenge of walking faster than normal on this chilly morning, it could not be considered in my mind as being accomplished in the spirit of fun.

So one way to improve the quality of my life with respect to these two concepts can better be accomplished by finding ways to accomplish both of them in one activity at the same time. Better choices must thus be made to reframe my constantly busy mindset concerning hobby play in a more enjoyable manner.

Take for instance I could better use my weekly yoga play to practice having more fun. That first of all means foregoing the compulsion to compete with others in difficult poses and instead just let my body do what it can. Also I should “let go” of thinking too much and in particular, meditate more on positive thoughts when given the opportunity at the end of each session. Engaging in “small talk” about common interests with other yoga classmates would produce more fun as well. Enjoy the photos from the St. Petersburg outing today.

I’d like to combine the words skills and lessons as one unified entity in this blog. Let’s consider then that I’ve chosen some previously learned skills that I’ve decided to seek improvement on recently while lessons follow-up as personal conclusions I’ve determined about the success of such transitional efforts. Know as well that these desired changes during this busy holiday season have been strictly targeted toward enhancing my quality of life at home while I’ve uncharacteristically chosen to not be traveling. So here we go below with three examples.

SKILL #1 – SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

I’ve taken a greater interest in the challenging pursuit of my Duolingo Spanish lessons in a more two way conversational way with friends and strangers. That means paying more attention to key words I know best that I hear and feel confident enough to respond with an appropriate phrase of my own.

LESSON #1 – I will do anything I can to slow the conversation down to give me more time to process the listening information . Say it to me 3-4 times if needed.

SKILL #2 – BIKE ROUTE ADAPTATIONS

At our new condo community, there’s heavy restrictions as to where I can actually ride my bike. That means repeating a set route each day for exercise rather than riding around freely for the joy of sightseeing adventure. As such, measurement of time spent pedaling and distance traveled from home capture my attention more for such strictly workout purposes

LESSON #2 – There’s little sense in just pedaling non stop to work up a sweat. Thus I need to take more time to just sit on a park bench or picnic table to rest quietly during this routine to gain more enjoyment of this hobby.

SKILL #3 – JET PACK BLOGGING

I notice a shift in the subjects of my blog beyond just travel. So I’m using Jet Pack topic prompts daily more to generate 1st person self reflections.

LESSON #3 – I observe my blog readership has expanded this past month in response to my more diverse selection of topics other than travel. My blogs also take less time to write with less emphasis on copy/paste thoughts from my notes app along with fewer photographic enhancements.

When COVID first intensified in 2020, I decided to buy an inexpensive Huffy Bike at Walmart to get outside more without exposing myself to the virus transmission in crowded environments. I might say then that it’s been my favorite physical activity since that time. For when I put on my safety helmet to ride around our suburban neighborhood, I feel more invigorated like I’m a much younger person than I really am.

Bicycle maintenance of course takes some degree of responsibility but that’s much easier than doing the same with my contraption filled car. For all I really have to manage every few months or so is keeping the tires correctly inflated and applying a silicone spray to keep the chains and other rotating elements lubricated as needed. It’s easy to store as well in our condo utility room for nightly safekeeping.

Sometimes on my route, I watch speed bicycle riders in their state of the art bikes intently heading long distance somewhere in competitive fashion. But I want no part of such action for all I want out on my easy rides of less than two hours would be to discover interesting settings to look at along the way. Notably that means stopping to feed the ducks or squirrels, watching iguanas slithering on the grass to find warmth or rescuing slow turtles crossing the road.

With more time to spend leisurely as a retiree at home these days, I probably need to think of more creative uses of my bike. I could use a biking partner to make this activity more likely for me to make new friends. There are also plenty of bike racks around nearby stores and cafes where I could lock my bike. Getting more daring, I might even try to bike out west a few miles to the Florida Everglades to practice my yoga or meditate in total silence.

I never really understood what Hospice meant until one of my elderly family members I will just call Julie received a terminal diagnosis and thus qualified to enter the program. At the time, I thought of her just lying idly in a crowded institution waiting to die. But I then took some time visiting her at her senior facility living space and observed how an extraordinarily successful team of dedicated professionals served Julie’s comfort care needs for free on a daily basis. Thus I express high admiration to those four individuals described below who’ve for over two years now worked efficiently together to extend the life of that much loved individual of my family for over two years now.

So first I must thank those assigned registered nurses who’ve so wisely handled the medical needs of Julie in her relaxed home setting. In particular, they’ve taken readings of her vital signs upon request, made sure that medications and equipment are supplied in a timely fashion, and taken emergency action when needed.

Next, I give my highest regard to the team social worker who functions best as a problem solving communicator. In doing so, she’s been well prepared serve both Julie and her family by answering questions about scheduling in-house doctor visit scheduling, providing family grief counseling and expediting required paperwork completing.

Moreover,I give kudos to the the team chaplain who’s most sensitively confided in Julie to honor her own spiritual beliefs without showing any bias of Christian, Jewish, or any other organized religious dogma. Complementing her “low key” communicative approach, those sustained periods of silence she allots to Julie seem well received as as a time of self induced, meditative reflection.

Finally, I am honored to recognize her Hospice student volunteer who vigorously attempts to keep Julie interested in pursuing hobbies and playing games that both of them share. Thus her quality of life seems improved in the present as they join together to compete in scrabble, watch an animal video, or discuss a favorite book or news item together.

In my yin yoga class today, our instructor tried something different to conduct class. Instead of playing the usual background music and periodic chanting/drumming during class, we were told that for the entire hour, “dead silence” would take place. With the room for our practice being soundproofed from outside noise as well, only the “inner voice” in my mind remained to disturb such extreme quiet conditions.

As expected then, I immediately began to dwell on thoughts of restless unease of the future, in doing each pose, 3-5 minutes at a time. But eventually such mental chatter seemed to calm down in this period of sustained quiet. In turn, I began to just focus more on the physical movement of the poses themselves along with my breathing then for the remainder of the class.

So based on this example,it appears I’ve begun to answer my inner critic as to the need to do less monkey mind” thinking that so often fixates my attention on the “what if” future. For it seems hypocritical of me to refer to myself in this blog as one who embraces the present moment in travel and yet frets about what might happen later on in my hometown surroundings to go wrong.

In making my choice of Paris, France as my favorite place to visit, I think of those momentary shifts in my mindset from spending time immersed in the present moment on those short term stopovers spent there. Most often these personal transformations have taken place along self guided walking experiences to and from planned tourist site visits. Feeling more energized then, my attention shifts in surprisingly new directions.. Three examples described below stand out vividly to my mind.

With my first illustration, I reflect back to those leisurely times when I’ve strolled along the picturesque Seine River during day or night. In those moments, I often envisioned myself as an inspiring landscape artist who so keenly captured detailed impressions of extraordinary details in my painting efforts then.

Consider as well the strong emotion I felt absorbing the natural beauty on spectacular display at Luxembourg Gardens in spring or fall. For these relaxing respites from the more hectic surroundings of the park’s urban surroundings often opened my mind to an ecologist frame of mind committed to preserving the landscape of public open space for all to enjoy.

Presenting my last example, I turn to those dark days of rampant Jewish anti- Semitism that existed during Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II. For on past walks along the Marais district in Paris, I’d deeply empathized with the Jewish people as their visionary advocate who’d overcome such historic pain to restore their cultural and religious identity in this region.

Thus I’ve set a personal goal for Ruth and me to again visit Paris in 2026 on an extended stay. For make no mistake about it. I’m seriously overdue!

By force of habit, being a night person for me is out of the question at this point of my life. You see I’m a high energy person who likes to get things done as early as possible in a timely fashion. So if my mind’s cluttered up by unresolved tasks happening during the day, I tend to lose quality time and precious sleep at night overthinking about such lingering issues hanging over my life.

In this regard, I think back to my time spent as an Adjunct Professor, when night classes were all that universities could normally offer me at the time. This nocturnal teaching routine did not seem normal for me then as I endured so much uncertain idleness in the day waiting for the evening classes to begin. To compensate for such lack of daytime activity, I often isolated myself from others as my mind seemed blindly focused more on what I’d be doing in the classroom each night. In turn, when I returned home in those late hours around midnight, the excitement “buzz” of each class cluttered my mind thereupon interfering with sound sleep.

So as a satisfied retiree nowadays, I take better control of my life knowing more about what will happen in the daytime. Such time stability has also heightened my interest in casual meetups with friends and family at breakfast or lunch. Now feeling more contented with this schedule, I can thereupon relax more for myself at night and just enjoy extended time watching sports, reading a book, playing music and allotting ample sleep time. One area I need to work on with regard to my day and night routines involves being more selective in time spent using my iPhone and iPad.

I suppose it’s easy for me to overlook being a meat eater without considering where the source of the meat originated from. I mean do I really want to think about those overcrowded cattle pens where cows become fattened up to eventually end up as corpses in the slaughter house? But there have been occasions where I’ve begun to question why I’m so heedless about living animals being eliminated just so myself and millions of others can just enjoy their meat.

I think this matter boils down to do we eat meat to live or live to eat meat. With this dilemma, I am perfectly fine rationalizing positively the first option. For a good steak or hamburger for instance does provide a good source of protein to make me a healthier person. But according to the second conclusion, there’s nothing particularly appealing about glorifying meat eating culture.

A true test of my resolve to put my meat eating decisions placed in a moral perspective would be whether I could convince myself living as a hermit in the woods to go out and kill an innocent animal like a deer, rabbit, or duck and then consume it for much needed food. So I would more likely go out and gather plants in the surrounding environs under such isolated conditions to enable myself to survive.

Perhaps I’ve also learned from past visits to vegetarian based India why cows are considered sacred part of the family unit, not a an object to destroy for their meat. So in spite of living much differently amid the ubiquitous culture of fast food hot dogs, hamburgers…. that glorifies enjoyment of meat, for such worldly – wise reasons I could definitely go meatless if I really tried.