18 Months Post-Retirement - Loss and New Life -

Record - a verb and a noun, which is why I've written these past 13 years - a way of keeping a record and recording my thoughts, actions, motives, life. 

First chemo treatment, Sept. 2012, 13 years ago

It's taken me 18 months to sort through the past many years - from divorce to cancer to remarriage to moving to job and career changes to parents deaths to "retirement" and building my own business - being self-employed - every single part of me has mourned what typically gets swept under the rug as not necessarily a loss, but a chance to move forward. This blog has definitely been my record and recorder. It's been a friend, a therapist, a sounding board, a muse, a companion on my journey. 

I must say - stress is stress, loss is loss, transition is transition, and even when expected, it is still difficult. An identity crisis has definitely taken place as I've hustled and sat in stillness "working through" so much. 

Retirement Party, May 2024 (daughter and son-in-law)

I'm saying good-bye to this blog, to those of you who have been occasional readers of my musings. Time to move from in my head and over-thinking and over-pondering and over-analyzing to being in the moment, present - for myself and my loved ones. 

I look forward to continuing my Wren House Counseling practice, going on your journeys with you, and I especially look forward to live conversations with you, rather than with the audience in my head. 

I think I'll call these past 13 years of blogging "The Missing Years," and allow it to serve as a repository.

As for my loved ones - I'm here, fully present, welcoming you and yours into my life, my home, at any time. 

Thank you to all who have walked this blog with me - here's to more Adventures with Folklady. Where should we go next? 

Fresh home from Hawaii Nov. 2025