This June I will have been blogging for 20 years so far

Why did I start?

I started blogging (I don't think it was called that then by the way) because I had almost died for about 8 months with a Heart virus that they couldn't even diagnose until I had healed from it. And most people then died of heart viruses so I was one of the few that lived here in the U.S. from a heart virus on top of all that. Plus my wife had demanded I retire (which was a good thing because I would have died if I hadn't: period). So, I retired at 50 which was really strange for me at the time. But, I had been praying for the "Leisure to Practice" which just means the ability to pray 24 hours a day and not having to earn a living and be stressed out all the time. In other words "Leisure to practice" and being retired are basically the same thing.

However, wanting something and then living with it is another thing.

For example, this is what retired people say and it's very very true:

"The Good news is that I'm retired and the Bad news is I'm retired."

Imagine a summer vacation when you were in school growing up that never ends combined with winter and spring vacations that never end. Would you be happy doing this?

But, my nature is to be always interested in new things to study and places I want to visit and people I want to meet and see and all that.

But, not everyone is like me so retirement doesn't work for everyone because some people are workaholics and not interested in studying everything and visiting everyplace and everyone I can.

So, retirement works for me for a variety of reasons but that doesn't mean it wasn't difficult the first 5 years to get adjusted to all this.

Who would this be the hardest on?

People who identify their personal identity with their career or job and who without it feel lost and confused.

However, this was never my problem. I always identified first as a father once my son was born so when my two daughters were born I just became more of a father and then we adopted another girl so now I have 3 daughters and a son in ages from 23 to 44.

So, basically blogging has given me a discipline to keep me focused as I travel the world alone or with my wife. Because she likes to travel too but sometimes she isn't into going where it's cold or snowy like I am to ski because she doesn't ski anymore. But, if we are heading south to southern California or to Hawaii or the East Coast or overseas she is usually traveling with me because she likes to do that. So, I bought a new 2011 Tundra then in 2011 so I can drive through literally any snow storm because it is high off the ground with both high and low range 4 wheel drive too. So, this has been a lot of fun for me and my friends over the years. I might replace it with a new one in a few years but this one is still working great with no problems.