Aah, Awe

The essence of Home involves feelings, relationships, routines, and predictable patterns of interaction. Home is also significantly related to a person's identity - home is where you are most yourself.

Retirement can shift the established personal identities into a new reality. As we enter Youssef's 2nd week of retirement we are so far, smoothly recalibrating.

Evolving as an individual abroad and adopting the cultural practices of your foreign post, perceptions of home change. Often the people and country help us reexamine our familiar and comfortable routines.

Some people approach retirement eager to throw off the yoke of routine and have fewer responsibilities. I personally need a familiar pattern of self care for positive mind-set.

Board Games-antidote to darkness.

Night comes to us like a silent thief who has slyly stolen something valuable: daylight. Darkness replaces the daylight quickly with little patience for our schedules and inventory of accomplishments reminding us we are powerless to seasons. I have been happy to reside in 4 seasons but in our 3rd UK year, I am reminded why so many gravitate to warmth. The life saving magic of Board Games appeases the daylight thief.

Dutch sociologist Johan Huizinga in 1938 stated "Games are fun and have a magic circle around them". What happens in a game stays in a game and we hopefully don't carry grudges when we don't achieve our goals forgiving our friends and family for their decisions.

Tim Harford, an English journalist I admire, describes the 2 states we achieve while engaged as a participant in a board game leading to resilience building.

"Flow and Mindfulness. If you are experiencing flow you are absorbed in an enjoyable activity. You become blind to anything around you. Mindfulness is a state of awareness and attentive to the internal and external experiences. They kind of sound like opposites. Board games bring these opposites together. "

Our local board game cafe: Meeples are board game pieces. Board games date back to 5000 bc when Nile overflows must have made them popular while building resilience.

Full of Awe

I love etymology and the 2 words awful and awe had me thinking. Aweful started out in the 1300's (agheful) as something inspiring great awe, worthy of respect and fear, "full of awe". Semantic shifts radically evolve meanings.

Lake District

The constant advice from friends and imperfect strangers was to visit the Lake District, just never in the months of April to September. Roads, sidewalks, restaurants, pubs, lodgings are clogged with tourists.

It was beauty beyond expectations, idyllic, primitive and wet. Awe inspiring.

Sky juice gives this island 135 shades of green so travelers quickly learn there's no bad weather, just inappropriate clothing. Water gushes out of the pores of the earth in such unlikely places and to such a degree it would make parched earth weep. Glaciers have molded this distant paradise creating lakes, streams and waterfalls as though the earth has opened all its faucets. Sheep graze in the distance disinterested in our wonder.

A trip to Beatrix Potter's Hill Top home in Ambleside searching for Squirrel Nutkin or Jemima Puddle Duck from her bedroom window.

A blaze of fall trees and the kitchen of my dreams at the home of William Wordsworth, one of England's Romantic poets. Local wool residents liked to give us the once over while enjoying the green grass of Grasmere.

The North Country has some funny sayings. One is Hatches, Matches and Dispatches meaning the rhythm of life is made up of babies, weddings and funerals in keeping with this land of simple beauty.

Brother Joe-3rd in line to succession

Another successful Joe visit as he alighted in the Isles with his normal Stottrup curiosity, learning gene and can-do attitude.

Liverpool was the meeting spot after he had berserked his way through Ireland and Scotland. What better place for a zealous music lover to start his English tour than a city with a heavy music tradition. Joe has a habit of humming a tune and delivering a song lyric asking if I know the singer and song name. It's a fun game that becomes challenging with age.

"Just four lads from Liverpool". Liverpool is the holy grail for The Beatles pilgrimage. We had a tour visiting the well-worn places formative to the bands rise to fame.

The city is more than the music. The themes of street art, architecture, Liverpool docks, slave trade and Irish immigration were all included in our tour guide's narrative. Eurovision 2023 will be in Liverpool.

The 5th Beatle (Joe), Cavern Club where the Beatles first performed and participating in street art.

London, Devon, wild horses of Dartmoor, Castle Corfe, all had a glimpse of Joe with his courtiers. We discovered the Moors which inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyles' "The Hounds of the Baskerville".

Visitors from our California home-Charlie and Lynn.

Our friends, Charlie and Lynn visited us for lunch, from London, where they are spending time with their son Christopher on Google assignment. Charlie teaches at California State University Long Beach and commutes to San Francisco where his wife Lynn is President of San Francisco State.

News Flash: 25 years at Blanchard, Youssef retires.

In his closing message he writes:

When is it the best time to retire? In his farewell column, Glenn Ruffenach (of the Wall Street Journal – Dec. 01, 2022) wrote about walking away and thinking about retirement as a privilege that shouldn’t be wasted… https://www.wsj.com/articles/retire-when-how-to-know-11669847287

Indeed, I am considering it as a privilege as I am retiring this December 31st from a glorious career with The Ken Blanchard Companies! For the last 25 years, I partnered with amazing Colleagues, Consultants, Authors, Trainers, Coaches, Solutions Architects, Global Partners, and great Clients. It has been very fulfilling to help unleash the full potential of individuals and organizations for the better good.

As Dr. Ken Blanchard said, “Life is a special occasion, let’s not waste it.” I am taking this advice to heart, and I am not missing the opportunity to re-examine my dreams, hopes and fears to Be and to Do what is most important to me.

Friends have been asked me “what will you do when you retire?” There are two parts to my answer: “Doing” & “Being”. For me, the Doing part focuses on the relationships, experiences with family (my 2 sons Kenz, Zayn and their partners, my life partner of over 44 years Wendy), and friends, the volunteering, hobbies, and adventures I will engage in. The Being part integrates: the energy, the vibe, and the mindset I want to cultivate and share with the world enhancing the Doing. Being can translate as simply as offering a smile, a helping hand, being kind, generous, curious, and engaged to positively impact my world

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives – I plan to make the most of it in retirement – How will you show up for this special occasion?

Youssef Arraki

Sweden

Santa Lucia is the perfect time to visit Lund Sweden with saffron buns, choirs singing and family uniting. It's integral to December on the darkest night of the year. The Lucia tradition can be traced back both to the martyr St Lucia of Syracuse, Sicily, the virgin martyr who brought foot to christians hiding in the Roman catacombs lighting her way with her candlelit wreath.

Lund, Sweden: Hearing Kenz sing in the choir, seeing Kenz and Diane's recently purchased allotment with small house and celebrating Santa Lucia.

Positive Emotion

Recent studies show that there are several things a person can do to build their level of positive emotions. Studies at Stanford and the University of Minnesota reveal that experiencing awe made people more generous with their time and less impatient. It created an awareness of something bigger than themselves. Look for more experiences of aahhh or awe in your life.

My wanderings bring up any number of these life defining moments, situational for every person. I can walk through Bath on a 50 degree day with the mist on the hills, the old Georgian buildings rising above and I feel awe. That won't work for everyone but it's a mood, a scene that invokes an unexpected wonder in me. I try to not rush through the experiences and circumstances that have the most capacity to transform me.

Thankful for the happiness and health of my phenomenal family.