OREGON TAYLOR FIELDS

  THEY WERE ALL LINED UP NOW, PULLED FROM THE ROAD. LEFT THEIR FATE UNSURE. EACH HAD ITS STORY TO TELL, BUT NO ONE TO LISTEN. ONLY THEIR MARKS TOLD OF THEIR DAYS….

Sometimes you just need a place to pause, safe from the swirling winds…  

  They were left parked on a back lot, having run the roads of their time. Rusted and scratched, stranded now, but wearing small slices of what it was like. Still dressed they were ready, but no place to go…

  The library was small by todays standards, just one floor staffed by a group of long time employees including Emmy. Everything about the library showed it’s age even the AC which emitted a muffled low mechanical noise. White noise most thought, but in reality just aging equipment. You could not help but think a librarian had a perfect job, seemingly apart from the harsh reality of trying to struggle against the myriad of forces effecting ones life on the outside. Here the movements of the day were measured. The gathering and restocking of books. There were technical names for this only librarians knew, CREW and MUSTIE. Acronyms for continuous review, evaluation and weeding of books. Always gauging if a book became too muskie or ugly to keep on the shelf.   Emmy didn’t admit it to herself, but working there for years colored your views on people and life. You started to classify them, especially the regulars. The elderly man who road his bike each day to the library and studi...

 

  How to best use your time in retirement is a much talked about and discussed topic. The concept of time changes over the years. When you worked your time wasn’t yours. To be successful you spent it accomplishing tasks and goals. When you were able to vacation, it always seemed to short. You strived to “stretch time,” enjoying the brief calmness and time to reflect. The feeling lingered, but soon disappeared when you returned to work. If your fortunate enough to retire, all the time that lays ahead is yours. You now are truly free. With that though, can also come occasional aimlessness. You don’t have to fill it by running from A to B like in work days. If you don’t find the right perspective on this, the result can leave you feeling depressed and lost. This is doubly true because you recognize that time does not go on forever. Your only given so much. Indeed, even the chance to have retirement time is being threatened by economic constraints. Experts on retirement advise a st...