QUIET LIFE STARTER KIT

Does a quiet life begin with keeping quiet?

If so, how’s it going?

Or does it mean something else?

Let’s go with something else:

Starting with a low-maintenance appearance.

I can wash my face and leave the house with confidence of looking good, looking all right, based on where I’m headed.

Dress up for the grocery store run? Nooooo.

Fix my hair for the dog park? Noooo.

Wear a clean shirt to socialize? Noooo, not after I learned about air-cleaning.

First the grocery store run.

I live near two over-55 communities. The closest Safeway is situated between both developments.

Lots of gray hair in there, which is shocking until I see my reflection in the cooler window.

I’m one of them? Yes, I am, but I don’t show up in my pajamas and slippers, pushing a cart of breakfast cereal and boxed wine.

Who else is a grocery cart detective, looking at people and their cart-load and connecting the dots?

I respect a cart full of veggies and meat and bread and a wine box, a box of beer. Where’s my diner invitation?

Even more respect for the younger people loading up on good nutrition with a kid in the cart.

We in the geezer generation are tempted to save time with pre-made meals from the freezer section, like Hungry Man Chicken Dinner.

We’re saving time to sit on the couch and watch the world spin on the news channels of our choice.

 

Saving Time For A Quiet Life

Part of the quiet life movement is not getting wound up watching grown men and women portray practiced outrage over events they read about.

Instead of joining in the outrage and repeating the reporting to others, find your own stories, review the facts and come to your own conclusions.

If what you come up with sounds squirrelly, keep looking.

You might find some calm, you might not, but at least it will keep you quiet.

That’s not me telling anyone to shut-up. I’m a blogger for God’s sake. I’d be the last to complain about the noise.

The kicker is the need for solitude to do what I do. Sometimes I get, sometimes I don’t, but an everyday blogger, one who brags about the daily post, keeps on track.

I’m not asking for a break, a timeout, or a vacation from what passes as real life.

That’s not in the cards with a committed wife.

Not ‘committed’ committed like she’s a danger to herself or others, but committed to making a better life with every action, every decision, every commitment.

That kind of committed.

Since some of her commitment runs off on me, I’m committed, too.

 

Committed To Family

A few of the things needed to make a quiet life happen:

Spending time with kids from the time they were born.

How many times do you get to do that?

Most experience is limited to our own children.

If you choose to be in the delivery room, you’re off to a good start.

Make a few bad decisions on your own, keep them a secret, then all hell breaks loose when discovery happens.

You did what?

With who?

An experienced marriage cheat with any number of ex-wives can tell you what to do next.

I hear an advertisement on my local sports talk radio, yes sports talk, telling men to be cautious in a divorce.

Kids trust their dads, it goes, and dads trust their divorce attorneys.

Every time I hear it played I think, ‘kids used to trust their parents. Wives used to trust their husbands until they made their own discoveries and said, Nope.’

Am I a safe bet to stay on the straight and narrow path of marriage fidelity?

With a past that includes, ‘I’m going to date the guy down the hall, but I’ll stick with you until I’m sure,’ and, ‘I married the guy I broke up with you for,’ and, ‘That door? It goes to the neighbors apartment next door for visits’ I’m a safe bet.

As a single man I had ten years off the leash of relationship responsibilities, but not the responsibility of being a decent person.

I broke up with anyone who wanted to break up. Why not get it over with sooner than later?

I’ve heard, ‘But I didn’t mean I wanted to break up.’

Me: That’s what I heard.

Them: I didn’t say I wanted to break up.

Me: And here we are.

I’m confident everyone in my past has had a better life without me.

However many husbands they’ve cycled through to find someone more compatible, I’m certain they eventually got the sort of luck that translates to happiness.

I would have been one of their marriage casualties, going on my third or fourth wife, aiming to top the family record of seven marriages.

Instead, I found the only person I know of who can be themselves without grossing me out.

I’ve got a wife tolerant enough to see someone for who they are, and join in.

And I’m that someone? Yes, I am.

If marriage is a test, we’re passing.

If living a quiet life is a test? We work at it.

With all of the family values talk coming out of ignorant mouths because they can pronounce the words if not live them, they need to be quiet.

Are they? Noooo.

Do their fans and friends care? Noooo.

 

PS:

I was in a hot tub the other day when another couple showed up.

Too friendly, too obvious, with the man all decked out in nail polish, rings, and necklaces.

The lady sat next to me. I think they were swingers.

I thought, ‘So this is my current draw? I’m pulling swingers?’

PSS:

In the quiet space that you create, in this world of noise and rushing and distraction, is a new world of reflection, peacefulness, and beauty.

It’s a world of your own, and it’s worth living in.