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COYOTE ARCHIVE
Dick Prosapio aka, Coyote is a member of the TMC Advisory Council, ceremonialist, psycho-
therapist (ret.), author, leader of men's experiential workshops, & Co-founder of The Foundation for Common Sense. He lives with his wife and daughter in Stanley, NM
For more info about Dick Prosapio, visit his web-site:
Spirit/ Earth Path
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Things to DO
by
Dick Prosapio © 2005
 The word, "Retired" produces a picture in my minds eye. There's a guy, doesn't look like me by the way, sitting in a wicker chair on a screened-in porch and he is reaching for a cup on an end table next to him. It's a late afternoon in the summer... nothing else is in focus in this picture, and I don't have a clue on where it's coming from or why I've created it this way but it certainly doesn't look anything like my retirement.
So, image aside, what is "retirement" like here? Well, it's not much sitting around and perhaps the fact that we still have kids-at-home has something to do with that. The fact is, though our kids are in their mid-teens and are not dangerous, they do tend to do things that make us very cautious about leaving them unsupervised for long periods off time. Bringing boys over, "experimenting" with alcohol, just general teen ager "stuff" that makes our leaving home for any period of time longer than, say, half a day, problematical.
In fact, we just can't do it. So, either we don't go, or we go with "baby-sitter" back up.
OK, so we are time limited in how long we can be gone. But in addition, there seems to be so much "stuff" we have to do every day and every week, that there just isn't much time left over for what ever my fantasy of "retirement" is. The fact that we don't have a well means we have to haul our water from a source thirteen miles away once a week. We could contract with a commercial water-hauler but that would cost us about $60 for a thousand gallons or $120 a month. Whereas hauling it ourselves costs about twenty or twenty-five a month. That's a fairly large hit on our limited budget.
Right now Elizabeth is deeply involved in a fight with BLM, a local miner and his financial backer over the establishment of a rock quarry in our area. It's turning into a twelve hour a day, seven day a week investment with tendrils reaching into every area you can imagine; State government. County government, environmental specialists, nearby neighbors, communities along the sixty one mile length of what is called, "The Turquoise Trail" which is the state highway along which the gravel trucks would travel to the tune of one every eight minutes or so.etc., etc. So, that takes a bite out of what's possible.
Then there's our contract with Children, Youth, and Families Department of New Mexico, which requires us to be in contact with Foster Care Families in our area on a weekly basis. There's our once-a-month sweat lodge and Men's Group, Elizabeth's belly dance and pilates classes, Selena's track practice and Honor's dance class.
Elizabeth has art projects she is working on in collaboration with other artists across the country in addition to her own investment in getting a collection of her work ready for a gallery showing.
And I write an article a week for a little publication in Colorado.
Oh, did I mention the dogs and the cat?
Who IS that guy in the wicker chair anyway? Well, he's the not-me in retirement I guess. And maybe I would never be him even if all these little "events" weren't impinging on my daily DO. But we do think of travel, like to B.C., Australia, Ireland. We could actually do that, though it would eat into our meager savings, but there's the "time" thing, and that, I know, seems to be running out fast.
On the other hand; so what? This is the life I'm living and all-in-all, it's a good one whether I see the Taj Mahal in person or not. I've rafted the Grand Canyon, and piloted a plane over a lot of Red Rock country. I've taken the ferry to the San Juans, and been busted on the Canadian border.
I've had the opportunity to be a good father.
And I found just the right woman to be with.
Yeah. The hell with the guy in the wicker chair. What's happening now is just fine.
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