The above image is of myself and my Beloved daughters enjoying a summer day in Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. We just celebrated their late January birthdays, 30 for Lauren, 33 for Megan. I am honored to have passed on a strong leisure ethic to them.
This photo of Lembert Dome from the Tuolumne Meadows Campground depicts my beloved leisure space of all time. How fortunate my grandparents passed on their love of the mountains to my mother and dad, who in turn made sure we spent many hours at the beaches of San Diego, endless days of weekend outings and glorious weeks camping, keeping the values of leisure in a busy, fast paced world.
If you are wondering what any of this has to do with the title of this post, it means I am using this WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge theme to say a fond farewell to my beloved readers and bloggers.
As another year turned the corner, I made the difficult decision about this blog, Second Wind Leisure Perspectives.
Now is the time for me to take an extended break from writing and publishing.
I am both sad and a little relieved at this decision.
Teaching is Taking All My Time
Although I profess to be retired, I have been teaching part-time as a lecturer in the Recreation and Parks field, which requires more time than I initially expected. Going from one class per semester while also working full-time was one thing, to teaching 15 units a year, some semesters with 150 students, feels like full-time work.
And I dearly love it!
This spring semester I took on a new course teaching the management of leisure organizations. Simple enough one would think, but have you seen the mountains of management literature out there?
I read at least 100 pages of management literature every day, then synthesize it into curriculum and power point slides while making it all relevant to their assignments. I had to create this course from scratch because of my own management experiences in the field.
Last night I lectured from the textbook on the evolution of management theory. I told my 80 students that they will likely never remember Max Weber’s “Bureaucratic Method” of the depression years or Elton Mayo’s “Human Relations Approach” of the 50s and 60s. You could hear a pin drop as students dutifully listened to the lecture.
When I began the next lecture at 7:30pm on self-management, they began to flood me with questions. Suddenly, the energy in the room was exciting and palpable as I shared the latest trends on what it takes to be a new manager in the field. By the time I got home at 9:00pm, I was wired!
This is where my energy needs to be…
…with these university students, hungry for information on what will direct the rest of their careers.
In the blogging world, blogs come and go. I hope you learned a little something from me about finding a healthy balance of leisure in your own lives and that you make wise leisure choices going forward.
I will be visible on Facebook and Instagram where I will continue to share my photos. I will also continue to read your posts when I can and I do hope to blog again at the end of the semester.
I cannot thank you all enough for the wonderful friendships and relationships I have built since I started consistently blogging in September 2014. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading, liking, commenting and sharing my posts.
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye…
…for now.
All my best,
Second Wind Leisure Perspectives 
What is YOUR perspective? Please include your name if WP identifies you as “anonymous.