A bumpy few months and a 4 year milestone

My last few months (and four years since retiring in 2020)

It’s been nearly three months since my last post. There, I shared my reflections on the lessons learned from my Camino Portugués journey. It was such a positive piece and it felt great to re-read it this morning. But I haven’t felt much like writing until recently. For all that I learned on that impactful trip, I feel like I took a big step backwards shortly after returning because the leg/nerve issue that manifested during the trip persisted. To be sure, I didn’t forget the important things I gained from my Camino, but I did find them difficult to keep at the forefront, and that was really disappointing.

What started as just being bummed about some physical limitations grew into something more serious. I got really up in my head about the leg issue as it impacted numerous aspects of my life. I gained weight. The depression that I thought I’d been managing well through chemistry and therapy rose up again. I felt really down about how protracted of a process it was to get a doctor appt, get several MRIs approved from health insurance, and to finally get some answers. And yes, all the while I knew that this was just a temporary setback, and that so many people are dealing with much bigger, longer term health issues than I’ve ever had. But that doesn’t mean my subconscious could square those things all the time.

I’m happy to report that I’m feeling much better the last few weeks. I’ve gotten some answers about my leg, a situation that has thankfully been slowly improving. I was grateful to learn there’s no scary root cause, and that with time I’ll be back to 100%. I’ve been doing some 3-mile walks again and currently have no restrictions on activity. I need to resume my daily walks, try some longer distances, and see how that goes. For the last couple of weeks, the flare-ups have been minor and short-lived. I’m starting to allow myself feel more optimistic about the situation.

Otherwise, life is really good. I have so much to be happy about. Our son graduated from high school, which included a fun week with family visiting from out of state. We’ve made plans around his move-in week for college, which feels like such a huge milestone - a bittersweet one, to be sure. I also had a nice relaxing day celebrating my recent 51st birthday with family and good friends. I’m enjoying my pastry baking journey, and am feeling pretty confident with choux now (creampuffs shown with this post). In very exciting news, Lorri and I booked a two-week vacation in Peru this fall to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We are super excited to finally be exploring South America and can’t wait!

Yesterday, Eric and I released a Two Sides of FI episode about my four-year milestone since leaving my career behind in June 2020. It feels really good to be having our regular chats again. I think we covered my learnings well in the video so I won’t rehash them here. But the key take-home for me from that conversation was how leaving my career behind has provided me ample space to think and focus on “how I’m doing” all around. In the big picture sense, the outcome of that has been a focus on mental health; I’ve written about and talked about this before. To be 100% clear, I’m grateful for this outcome. It’s a gift. The work is hard but it’s long overdue, and is clearly going to serve me well over the long term.

I hope this post finds you all well, and enjoying time with family and friends. Take care of yourselves, and I hope to “talk” to you again soon. Mahalo 🙏