Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2005 11:19 P.M.

Building Blocks of Life

Lake Tahoe, California/Nevada: June, 2004. I just saw this scene again, and wanted to re-use it. I posted this photo in my July 2nd entry. I had taken it on our trip to the Reno area, which I wrote about in three successive posts. They constituted a sort of �travelogue� through a historic area from the Gold Rush days. You might want to refer to these, starting with this entry: �Blue Lakes�Tall Trees� (Note to new readers: All words in BLUE in this page are "links" to another page.)

Structure

Her name was Virginia. She was a dear little white haired senior saint�the mother of a close friend. In the last decades of her life, you could see a pattern emerging. She rose each day at a certain time and followed a routine varied only by the responsibilities of that particular day. However, built into the structure of her waking hours, there were several activities that she performed with habitual regularity. Only imposing circumstances altered these. And she preferred that they were not altered, at all. Each day at a certain time, she came home, changed into her comfortable robe, stretched out in her recliner, and completed the crossword puzzle in her local newspaper. Then she checked the answers for the previous day�s puzzle. When she traveled to visit us at our home, we made sure to find a newspaper with her daily puzzle. This activity was one of the things that helped to keep her mentally alert up to her very last breath.

Her meals were taken at a certain time, and she preferred not to miss her two favorite television shows: Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. With her storehouse of trivia and facts, and her command of the English language, she frequently out-played the contestants on each show. It was as though she felt it important to challenge her thinking processes on a daily basis, and this is how she chose to do it.

It worked for her.

But more importantly, this daily structure gave her a sense of secure boundaries, and brought closure to her activities.

This is not a bad thing.

How often do we hear of the older generation being �set in their ways�, or stuck in a personal routine which they are reluctant to vary?

Of course, there�s the great danger of becoming �set in our ways� in that we refuse to grow intellectually and to adjust to changing circumstances. This is not structure. This is stagnation.

In April of 2003 I wrote an entry entitled: �Guilty or Not.�

If you go back and read it, you will see that I was struggling with a period of my life when structure as I had known it, was removed. I was later to realize, that the reason I felt guilty, was because I felt like I was playing hooky from something.

We have heard the saying, �A mind is a terrible thing to waste.� Time, also is a terrible thing to waste. Especially when the period is reached when there is less ahead, than behind us in our lives.

So I have come to realize why a person growing into this stage of life, begins to establish structure. And it is okay. It brings a feeling of security, and a sense of accomplishment.

On my stay-at-home days, I have developed my own built-in structure. It goes sort of like this.

Upon awakening, I immediately start my coffee brewing, make my bed and straighten the room, get dressed for the day, (this usually includes makeup), turn on the radio to a favorite talk show which I listen to, while I spend half an hour on my treadmill. I then eat a simple breakfast.

Oh yes, somewhere between making coffee and making the bed, I turn on my computer and check my email. (At this point I am in danger of getting bogged down in the progression�it is not easy to walk away from the computer.)

Actually during my treadmill exercise, I have been listening to a series of teaching tapes on the Torah, taught from the Hebrew by a Jewish scholar. I have been doing this for several months now, and have finally covered the first two books of the Bible. .

At that point, I�m free then for the rest of whatever the day brings, and if I do a little drifting, at least I have accomplished something up to that point.

I�m not really a self-disciplined person by nature, and the previous decades of my life were structured by others�employers�school, etc.

As everyone does, I supposed that �retirement� meant freedom to do whatever you want, �or nothing at all. And it does mean that. But there is danger in that last phrase��or nothing at all.� It has taken me quite a while to realize that I am responsible for my own �structure� now, and that it is okay to establish certain patterns of living.

Maybe the next time I am tempted to think that someone is just being in a rut, I will realize that instead, they are in their routine. And that routine is a structure, which brings parameters and productivity. The structure is made of the building blocks of life.

And that�s a very good thing!

Thanks for reading!

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