Coming Home To A Smile And Two Wagging Tails 9/14/2019

Good Morning,

I just filled a Thermos Bottle with Door County Caramel Apple Coffee and I will be headed out very soon to hunt geese not too far from our home. I will be with good friends and some great dogs. We will see the sunrise and meet with our Creator. Another hunting season is in full swing.

Yesterday I walked out of the medical center for the last time. I retired from the health care arena after 36 years. The last two days have been a whirlwind of finishing up on some details at work and saying the many goodbyes that needed to be said.

Ecclesiastes 3:9-13 

9.What do workers gain from their toil? 10. I have seen the burden God has placed upon the human race. 11. He has made everything beautiful in it's own time. He also has set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to the end. 12. I know there is nothing better than for people to be happy and do good while they live. 13. That each of them may eat and drink and find satisfaction in their toil. For this is a gift from God

Retiring is a part of life and I am sure that I will be looking for something else to do. I was ready to retire from health care. I will continue to work at something for a few more years, but it will be something different. Not sure what that will be yet.

So after saying goodbye and dispensing a few tears. (Let it be known that real men don't cry. They have hay fever attacks and I am sure the high pollen count can be blamed for my watery eyes,) I walked out of the hospital headed to a new adventure. An adventure that I have never been on before. Of course there is doubt and a little fear of the unknown. It was hard to leave my coworkers who are more like family than co-workers.

The drive home was quite subdued and if you really want to get depressed do what I did. Turn on the Old Time Country Music.  One guy had his wife leave him. One lady had her husband leave her and the kids. ( I wonder if this was the same couple). One guy drank too much and his wife hired a wino to decorate their home. Old Shep passed away and Lefty turned Poncho in to the Feds.  By the time I got home I saw no hope for the day.

But!!! When I opened the door I was greeted with a smile and two wagging tails. My wife Rene greeted me with our two hunting dogs Gibbs and Leo. All four of us sat in the kitchen as i explained my day. I expressed to Rene how difficult it was to say goodbye and she understood. She handed me a stiff drink of my favorite Kool -Aid. I started to read the cards given to me and I couldn't do it. I wondered who the person was whom the people were saying such nice things about. I just couldn't read them. Rene took the cards and started reading them to me. That's when a bad bout with hay fever hit me again and I am convinced it is contagious because her eyes started to leak also.

The statements were wonderfully written and I appreciated every one. The point I am making is this. Many years ago we promised to each other for better or worse. We celebrated and mourned all at once. But I was blessed to be able to do my celebrating and grieving with someone who loves me and would read to me while tears rolled down her cheeks.  She didn't care that her tough guy was down and out with a hay fever attack.  The two dogs fell asleep at my feet and for a few minutes it was quiet as we drank Kool -Aid and reminisced.  I sat in our kitchen and felt safe from the fear and pain. Rene prayed for me and I went and took a two hour nap. I woke up and the world was still spinning. I did a Google Earth search and the hospital was still standing without me and I was at peace,

There is a time for everything and it was time to leave and take that nap I missed for so long.

Marty