Women's Golf Group Welcomes Me with Open Arms

I just wanted to share another update about my new experience playing golf with the women's group. My first round was challenging, which I previously wrote about. However, I have been playing on Tuesdays and Thursdays for over a month now and everything has changed. I have met some really lovely women who have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome. I have been helped learning the online registration system, helped with protocols, and learning the "sweeps" games and how to score them. Several women have made special efforts to play with me, to stay for lunch so that we could all get to know each other, and just making me feel more a part of the group. It has been so heart-warming.

Before I retired I had very little time to play golf. I usually only played on Sundays with my husband, and typically only 9-holes. Since my handicap is high, I got very tired playing 18-holes and really preferred the shorter course. However, now that I am semi-retired and playing two days a week with the women's group and Sundays with my husband, I have developed by "sea legs" and am gaining the stamina to play 18-holes without falling apart at around the 13th hole. Not to say that my score has improved much - LOL- but I am physically and mentally more able to hold it together for the full 18-holes.

I find it very interesting that I feel "over-scheduled" currently. I am working 2-days a week, playing golf two days a week and handling all my home chores and cooking on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. While I still have afternoons open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I started doing strength-training during that time, so still feel strapped for time. I have made careful efforts to schedule luncheons on Fridays with colleagues and friends who also have retired. I also have scheduled some lunches on Saturdays for those who are still working. While these are still only 3 or 4 outings a month, it feels like my schedule is very full. I will end my part-time working at the end of December and I am wondering if I will feel differently when I then have two more full days to fill?

So far, I have thoroughly enjoyed feeling so much less stress from work. Stress about my golf game or how to fit in my lunches just does not compare! I actually have felt joyful after I completed a golf game and lunch with the women. Driving home, I found myself so uplifted and light that I was smiling a singing to the music the whole way home. I remain hopeful that I will find other meaningful and joyful things to fill my time during retirement. For now, I feel so grateful for this time in my life.

[Unrelated photo from our trip to France. This is Amboise and when I saw this out my B&B window when I awoke, I was overjoyed. So I thought this appropriate to express my joy.]