Off The Beaten Path

My photo
Georgia, United States
Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some people move our souls to dance. They awaken us to new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom. Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon. They stay in our lives for awhile, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never ever the same.

Thursday, August 30

A Long Road

No longer playing ball myself, I have to be content watching the boys play. This was taken at one of Scott's North Venice Little League games when he was 13. (1991)

I was sitting here tonight thinking about my life. Where I have been, how I got here, and how much I have seen and done. I grew up very poor, Mom worked in a saw mill and Dad left when I was about one, so we basically raised ourselves, my brother and I. I started my first job at 11 working in the garlic fields, (as long as I can remember I always wanted to earn my own money.) But writing was always very important to me, letters, journals, school projects, stories. So when I got out of high school, going to work at a radio station, writing copy, ads, promo's and editorials was right up my alley. All my life writing has been very helpful in each job that I have had. I found out early in life, that if you have the ability to put ideas down on paper, in a way that others can understand what you are saying, you have a big advantage.

Somehow I made it through life without doing drugs, smoking, or drinking. I guess you might say I have led a pretty "clean" life. And I don't feel that I missed a thing, I decided early on that a good mind was a valuable asset and I had no intention of destroying mine with drugs. Even to this day, I hate taking medication, even prescription medication. Who knows what side effects it may have......

I have lived three very different lives. Or so it seems. Right out of high school I played fast pitch softball, worked at the radio station, raised Darrin, lived on a ranch and rode my horses, a country life. Then I moved to Los Angeles, became a city dweller, I went to work for a major bank as an Operation's Manager, raised a couple more kids, filled my spare time watching them play baseball and began a career writing music reviews for a Magazine called the Southland Blues. Then I moved to Louisiana and on to Georgia, I am still raising kids, (not the same kids, I had two more), still writing, still reading, still watching baseball, but now I go see the Atlanta Braves. I garden more, visit the city very little, just sit back and enjoy my retired life here in this country setting. But often I will sit here and think about my life and stare at my hands remembering all the diapers they have changed, the baseballs that they have caught, the walls they have built, painted and wallpapered, the apple pies they have baked, the flowers they have nurtured, the skinned knees they have salved and I realize these hands have a right to be tired.

7 comments:

Akelamalu said...

You have done so much to be proud of Nea, relax now. x

Pete said...

Nea

Well done you for all you have achieved within your life. Those hands have made so many people happy.

Pete...;-)
XX

Neoma said...

Hi Akela, I have figity bones I guess, I never want to sit still.......even when I don't have the actual energy to get up, I still want to, haha.

Hi Knowley, right now the husband would be really happy if I would make one more pie. It was his birthday yesterday, and he was hankering for an apple pie instead of cake. He might get one, and then again he might not. It is 50/50 right now, haha.

Bill ~ {The Old Fart} said...

You have had a very fufilling life Nea, be proud of your accomplishments and take the time to relax and enjoy your well earned retirement.

A Blessed Long Weekend is wished for you

Neoma said...

Thank you Bill, you have a great vacation.....

I have done much, but I am the kind of person who feels useless just sitting around not doing anything.......it is a family thing. Mom is 92 and still wants to be out weeding the yard...we just don't like to sit and do nothing. So we really push ourselves. It was nothing to see Mom out cutting wood at 80.

Avus said...

There is an autobiography waiting to be written there, Nea!

Neoma said...

Hi Avus, the reason I wrote this post, mainly, was because someone, (someone who knows me not in the least), told me that I was boring......and my blog was boring. It made me sit and think about my life.....and I came to the conclusion that I have lived a really full, active life, and now that I am not so active, maybe I have earned that right. It is always amazing to me, how quick people are to judge, even when they know nothing about a person.