The Author's Corner: The Void

It is early morning as you are driving home from your night shift. Home is an hour way as you prefer living where your parents are as you help them since they are in their later years. As you come to the river valley there is a thick fog that fills it making it look almost a river itself. You take a moment and stop your car onto the side of the road to take in this beautiful sight. Within your life, this fog filled void is where you are at the present and you feel it would be better work closer to home. You put your car back into drive and dip into the abyss towards home.

The meaning of a void is all depends on how it is used in a sentence. With the about it is the space in the valley that is between two points. It can also be used as a feeling towards someone or thing. There are many ways to write the voids as I myself am retired which means my void is from this moment to the next. What I fill my time void with will make the difference in how my day is to go.

The meaning that I am working on right now is the things in between two places. These two places are birth and death. The reason is because so many of us just go through the motions of everyday life. Most people are set in a routine that has been set on us by our careers and family. The way that this routine is to get up Monday to Friday and go to work for eight hours and then go home to the family. Watch TV for a few hours and then go to bed to repeat that cycle.

What if we were to break that schedule and do something that is remarkable different. To stop sitting in front of the TV and maybe spend time with your kids if you have some or take your wife/husband out for a meal. There are things that you can do if you are single like something simple that will improve your education by reading some books or taking a class at a local college. To make a difference in your life you need to break the cycle and go for your dreams.

Yes, I know that dreams are things that you would not consider filling your time because they take effort to do. For me I know the dreams that I have and they have their challenges as they require thought and the time to sit down and write. I remember my first book, it took me ten years to write because I was working full time and the second book of the series took almost six years. Now where I am retired from the work world, I have the time to work on the books that I am writing and I do not have to worry about what time it is or spending my free time writing.

The hard part for me is to get the urge to write another book or even an essay. There is where my void lies, I have the time and the challenge for me it to get to the paper to write. Something that I know that I will be doing for the next many years of my life and what I have always wanted to do, I now have the time and ability to do it.

For some of you I know that saying that I am retired young is hard to understand. I retired and my void started in September of 2020 as the mental illness that I have reared its ugly head. It was at that time I realized that things could be worse. I knew that I would be alright and I had moved home to take care of my parents in April of 2020. What I saw as a bad thing at first turned out to be a positive thing.

I changed the outlook of my life and broke the cycle that runs most people’s lives. Always look for what is important to you and your retirement should be created by you. If you see yourself single and helping your parents like me, go for it. What you see for your life you can make happen. It is your life and your void to go through to get there. There will be challenges however, if you believe in yourself, you will make it.

If you need help, always ask the Creator/God/ or what you call the one that created you for guidance and have a little faith in yourself. Your void will be what will make you into who you will become.