The Porch Swing Chronicles

Fellow blogger HollyBowne uses a quote of the week on her blog, complete with a beautiful photo. The combination of the two makes for a simple, yet beautiful post.

Since I make it a habit never to steal from other writers, I have avoided using a quote as a weekly post, particularly since I lack Holly's knack for finding just the right photo.

But every once in a while, I find a quote that is so appropriate, I have to use it (and I think Holly would understand and forgive me). Today's is a familiar one, one that careened into my consciousness when I turned the page of my calendar one day last week.

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." (Henry David Thoreau)

As you know if you've been reading this blog, at the beginning of June, I took a leap of faith and followed my drummer onto the path of retirement, earlier than I'd ever intended. I followed logic as far as it would go, then took the fork in the road, following the drumbeat.

Friends and colleagues have offered congratulations. Some have even called me brave, a sure sign that I am indeed following a different drummer because brave is not something I ever intended to be.

I am nervous, but mostly, I am excited about the open road that lies ahead. The last time I faced this many changes I was much younger, so I can only hope I am still young at heart enough to follow my drummer up hills and into valleys and that I can remember to enjoy the journey as much as the destination.

Right now, the journey is a blast. I'm writing course proposals. Selling purses. Learning Twitter.

Everyone tells me that it will hit me in the fall when everyone goes back to school and I don't. Maybe they're right, but that's why I'm writing course proposals, selling purses and learning Twitter.

And when those things stop being fun, there are plenty of other things for me to do, because the greatest gifts that have accompanied this decision (aside from the obvious one - TIME) are the return of optimism and the tacit permission to follow that drummer.

Come follow me. Or better yet, keep your ears open for your drummer.