One of the biggest fears I've ever had in my life was not getting bored after I retired (from work... not life!).
I've seen so many people totally disheartened and confused after leaving the work routine and staying home all the time, with their partner or alone. Close friends and relatives, people who seemed balanced and whose sudden change in their lives caused them strong traumas.
I noticed then that the most vulnerable people to this change are those without hobbies and passions and those without children and grandchildren! As a general rule, but not obligatory, there are many people without hobbies and children who manage to fill with something the much free time suddenly appeared in their lives.
For me the fear I spoke of at the beginning was unfounded, not only was I not stressed by the retired state but, moreover, I can say that I was busier than I had been during my active life as a man forced to work to support myself and my family.
Because I have many passions, a wife, and I also have a granddaughter, Ilinca, and this occupies all my time!
Now I leave aside my passions which are time-consuming, especially now that the internet has enlarged and brought the world closer to us, and when I already realize that I will not have enough time left...
I will refer to a greater wonder than the internet, for me, of course, my four-year-old granddaughter, Ilinca.
This "Alice in Wonderland" picture I took by mistake and called "Ilinca in the Grandparent's Garden". In the background, on the left side, there is the apricot tree with a single fruit, the tree planted at Ilinca's birth.
Apart from a small group of friends, no more than the fingers on one hand, I, we, have no one close to us except a son and a granddaughter. Ilinca!
As I said in the beginning, I lived in fear of the moment of retirement and afterward, for fear of suddenly having too much free time, for fear of getting bored.
This fear was shattered in the beginning by the realization that there was actually not enough time to cultivate all my passions... and then Ilinca came along. A storm!
I have not had the experience of being close to a little girl in her early years. I was taken by surprise, just as I was taken by surprise by the appearance of this child in our lives.
The chance to be close to a little girl in her first steps in life is something I never thought could be so impressive. My amazement at how this child sees the world, how she understands the world, and how she explains what she understands.
Innocence, the absolute trust they give to those close to them, the lack of pretense, and the lack of lying are qualities that we can only see in children, in their first years of life. It is a privilege to be close to such a chance, it is a privilege to see and understand this. For this, I am devoted to Ilinca and I am glad to be able to give her some of my time.
Apart from all that, Ilinca is a mountain of energy! Something indescribable. When the day is big she wants... action, she wants to do something all the time. That's a hard fact to bear...
A child who is full of energy that needs to be consumed and an old man with less and less energy that should be conserved.
This is the essence of my relationship with Ilinca.
It is a contradiction and to resolve it, each side would have to make concessions. Ilinca doesn't know what concession means and is not willing to do so and then I am forced to face her energy and try to resist, with difficulty but with great pleasure.
To that end, on the weekends when we are together, we try to give Ilinca enough reasons and activities in which to expend too much energy.
In the park
Always in the park, in several landscaped parks, and with specially made energy consumption devices... I like climbing the most, and she likes it too...
Contrary to a preconceived opinion, frequent visits to these children's playgrounds and sports venues have revealed to me that girls are more eager and determined for sports. And much braver! My heart always beats faster and more precipitously when I see her climbing up these walls like a little goat. That's not an insult... I think the goat is the most gifted animal for climbing.
Shopping
Ilinca is a little girl. She looks a lot like her mother, she also looks like her grandmother, I mean she loves to go shopping!
I said "go shopping" and not "do the shopping" because, obviously, every child wants to get gifts, toys, and sweets but she likes to explore the large stores, she likes to walk around the store and discover... that's after she's made at least one capture.
Knowing this and to keep her occupied for as long as possible, we spent part of the weekend in IKEA, the Swedish store that specializes in furniture and other home necessities.
We found out from Ilinca what furniture she wanted for her room, and what dolls and toys. A panda bear has permanently stuck to her hand... and she had a good hand. It was one of the cheapest toys she could choose from there.
Like all girls, Ilinca loves mirrors, she likes to observe and admire herself. At this age children are not very modest, they are always the prettiest, the best behaved, and the most interesting. I think this is the first lie they tell, unconsciously. In fact, I think it can't even be called a lie because they think it's true.
After a few hours in the shop, hunger came. Hunger is a problem for her because it seems she doesn't know it and we have problems and disagreements when it comes to food. But here food seems to be different than at home. Much better and much more desirable. Unfortunately, we can't come here every day for lunch!
This is how I tried to entertain my granddaughter this weekend.
One might ask... Why tell us about it here?
Well, I've been trying all weekend to write this post, inspired by the topic proposals made by 
I was inspired by this topic: If you had three children under ten years old to entertain this weekend, what would you do and why?
I think it is understood that if I call for help to find themes for posts then I am lacking both inspiration and imagination and then I am unable to imagine what I would do if I had three children under ten years old that I had to entertain in a weekend. I prefer to tell the story of what has already happened. Of course, in order to properly fit the requirements of the stated theme, I would have to make a few derogations from reality and consider that Ilinca is my daughter and not my granddaughter and moreover, that there are three Ilincas instead of one.
In the end, all these obligations fell through because I failed to post in time in
Which community should I post my blog in? In which one does it fit? It seems to fit into a few distinct communities. Which one should I stop at?
After a fair amount of thought and considering certain aspects, such as:
- the first part of the post contains some reflections I made on the retreat.
- the post was made taking into account
I decided to post in the community that has something in common with reflections and Galen, i.e. Reflections
I'm returning to an older habit I borrowed from our friend 
