What I’ve Been Doing Lately
Updated: May 19, 2025
I intentionally don’t do much with social media, but it’s nice to have a place where people who are interested can keep up with what I’m doing. This page is designed to do just that. I typically update it about once a month.
Mindfulness Meditation Retreat
- On Monday afternoon through Wednesday morning of last week, I completed a do-it-yourself mindfulness meditation retreat at a local religious retreat center. A friend gave me the link to some excellent introductory mindfulness meditation videos by Gil Fronsdal.
- One of the things that intrigues me the most about mindfulness meditation is that I now have this sense that I live my life at a very surface level, probably for me directed primarily by my thinking. But there’s a whole other world below the surface, a world of being in touch with my body and also being in touch with my emotions. And I’m often not even aware of those aspects of my life.
- So I see meditation as a way of discovering this whole inner world that is me. I want to become more aware of what I’m thinking, more aware of what my body is feeling, and more aware of my emotions and what underlies what I think and do. And I see mindfulness meditation as a way of getting there.
- My wife and I are watching the videos, one every Sunday night. Since taking my retreat I’ve meditated each morning for 10 minutes.
Retirement Course
- I’ve completed the course work for the Certified Professional Retirement Coach course I’m enrolled in. Next, I need to complete 12 hours of practice coaching. Once that’s done, I’ll receive my certification.
Ending National Park Service Ranger Employment
- Last October, I became a National Park Service part-time employee, working two days each week. Between the 3-hour round trip and the extroverted behavior I (as an introvert) must exhibit when greeting visitors to the Visitor Center and leading tours, I find I’m completely exhausted at the end of a day–and it takes me the next day to recover. I’ve resigned my position, as of Saturday, May 31st, and have transitioned back into being a volunteer. I’m looking forward to having more time and energy for other projects I’m involved in.
Retirement Website – “Retirement Reinvented”
- I’m still working on a new website, which will be titled Retirement Reinvented. It will feature blog posts about the topic of retirement. I already have a backlog of blog ideas that are ready to be developed, written, and published. I thought about just adding these to my Original Mac Guy website, but I think it will be better to have a website dedicated to retirement issues.
I got the idea for this page from David Sparks, aka MacSparky, who got it from Derek Sivers. I don’t like using social media for updates, so on this page I can update you as to what I’ve been doing lately