Bored

I have led a busy life. When not working at career assignments, I donated time and talents to causes I felt were important. I was especially drawn to causes that helped individuals grow and expand their skills and life futures.

This involved work in churches, chambers of commerce, university projects and programs, credit unions and SCORE.org. With others I served on a park board of commissioners, a city council, a chamber board and executive committee, credit union boards, and a community newspaper. The latter was something that replaced an earlier paper that went under. We recruited a volunteer group of 32 and produced a quality newspaper weekly for 8 years. I wrote a lot of it. I edited all of it. I was the managing editor for the full 8 years, and together our team worked hard to earn the trust of the community. I think we succeeded at that, but we simply couldn’t attract enough ad revenue to pay the bills or build a solid operating reserve. So, we ended the paper. We mailed the paper to every residence and business in two communities and dropped off copies for a third community.

In retirement my volunteer activities continued. I was a very busy SCORE mentor for nearly 11 years and then quit to write a book.

The book had a good start (7 chapters drafted) in the first two months. Then I took a break for the holidays and then moving to a smaller apartment in the same building as the original apartment. I have not resumed work on the book and now wonder if it is something I should invest time in. That decision has led to a few months of quality downtime. It is in this period I became bored.

Keeping the apartment neat and tidy is not an all-consuming task. Writing the blog takes only a few minutes three days per week. Watching documentaries and junk TV does not fully engage the brain. So, boredom grows.

Identifying what I want to do with the rest of my life is now a large question. I am not doing well answering it. I am struggling. Travel is an interest, but I have little money for it, nor do I have the stamina or walking abilities of the past. A walker is needed in most of my movement today. Returning to SCORE.org would only present more work and over scheduling. The work was very interesting and rewarding, but still, I really did too much. It was hard to say no to new clients.

I suppose I could expand blogging but that assumes my presence in this market is needed and valued. I cannot know that on my own, only from others. How do you learn that without looking like a prima donna or egotist?

Well, I will stumble along and decide what to do in any case. Guess that will unfold to public view as I learn to live it.

May 7, 2025