Leanne, the author of Cresting The Hill, is on a quest to redefine life after work and has selected a word of the year to assist her. The concept, if you are not familiar, is to choose a single word (WOTY) which will guide and motivate certain behaviors toward the achievement of goals, effectively closing the gap from where you are to where you want to be during the course of a year. Leanne’s WOTY is Symphony!
For the next several months, she is inviting guest authors to share their ‘second half of life’ stories on her blog. When she put out the all call for volunteers, my hand shot up quickly and today, I am honored to be her featured author. After fifteen years of retirement and all its ups, downs and plateaus, I can’t think of a better word than symphony to describe this time in our lives. Please pop over and read what I wrote about life after work.
In the meanwhile, I dug deep into my photo archives to create this visual interpretation of a symphony! Enjoy!
What made me smile this week – sharing our retirement story at Cresting the Hill and going down memory lane to create this photo sequence for you to enjoy.
This post is also shared at Trent’s World Weekly Smile Challenge. We would love to know what made you smile this week so please join the party.
All photos are property of Picture Retirement. We love it when you copy, post on Pinterest, or Instagram, share on FB, etc., but please do us a kindness by giving recognition to Picture Retirement as the source.
Picture Retirement 
Hi Suzanne, I have always thought of you as part of our Symphony and now I look forward to the opportunity to read your thoughts on this vast subject. Your photos are always breathtaking! I have mentioned to you in the past how they are a mini meditation for me. You may be aware how my smile of the week was having the privilege to be present for the birth of my Grandson. Grateful beyond words! I am heading to Leanne’s site now.
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Thank you Erica, I am glad you enjoy my photographs. I love sharing them with people who appreciate the beauty of our world and do not take it for granted, or worse, never notice! Congratulations on the birth of your Grandson. What a special time for you all. Enjoy!
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Thank you Suzanne! Very grateful for all!
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I enjoyed this symphony, Suzanne. I’m heading over to see your post.
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Hi Dan, glad you enjoyed my version of a symphony and thanks for visiting Leanne’s site.
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Hi Suzanne, I left a comment on Leanne’s site. I enjoyed reading your post and loved your photos of the ocean making a beautiful symphony. I also just joined Trent’s World The Weekly Smile. Have a wonderful weekend!
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Hi Natalie, I am so glad you will join in Trent’s weekly smile group. You certainly have a lot of smiles to share! Thanks for your comment on Leanne’s blog.
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These pictures made smile! I enjoyed your post on the Leeanne’s site. You have certainly gotten the symphony figured out. Wishing you many more smiles this weekend.
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Thank you Beth, we are winding down our time in Destin and NOT looking forward to returning home to South Florida. The temperatures here have felt like heaven! Thanks for reading my post on Leanne’s site.
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Hi, Suzanne – I just read your post at Leanne’s site. I greatly enjoyed learning more about you. The photos that you have shared here work perfectly with that piece. Perfect pairing!
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Hi Donna, Leanne chose those photos from my blog so I can’t claim credit. Thank you for reading what I had to say.
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You know I adore your photos and the post was fabulous – I really enjoyed learning more about you.
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Hi Jo, thank you for the compliment. I love to share our story and hopefully inspire others to keep moving forward.
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Love your photos, and I’m headed over the read your guest post. 🙂
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Great post. Sounds like you have certainly figured out a detailed plan that works well for you.
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Judy, it works but we have to remain flexible and willing to adjust. You never know what tomorrow brings. Thanks for reading what I wrote at Cresting the Hill.
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Oh what a fun idea! I will head on over to read your post…
Really enjoy your photographs. The colors and vistas are so pleasing.
Peta
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Magnificent photography. Enjoyed your post and writing style. Cheers!
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Thank you so much, that is high praise coming from you guys.
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Suzanne it’s been an absolute pleasure having you as my guest (and thank you for replying to all the comments too!) I loved your photos – I could hear the crescendo of the waves as I scrolled through them all. You definitely have a talent in this area (and many others!) 🙂
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Thank you Leanne, I enjoyed sharing a bit of our retirement journey with your readers. You have always been an inspiration and someone I consider to be genuine. Thank you for having me.
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Hmmm…. a word for the year, that’s an interesting idea. I have no idea what word I would choose, so I’ll have to give it some thought. Actually, I have several good words, but narrowing it down to one is what will give me pause to think.
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Patti, I think it is perfectly okay to have more than one. I don’t have a word this year but I have in the past and it was helpful for what I was trying to accomplish at the time. These days I am less about challenges and more about enjoying what is.
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The photo sequence says it all or shall I say, “sings it all”? 😄 I’ll go over to that site to check out your contribution; I have two years of retirement under my belt, and as you say there are a lot of ups and downs, plateaus as well as glimpses of bliss.
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Susan, if you ever get to a place of continual bliss, please let the rest of us in on your secret!
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Well that’s very cool, that you are writing a guest blog, and that her word is symphony, and your photos. For some reason, photo #2 says symphony to me the most out of all of the images. I’ve been retired almost 5 years, and I can tell you (but I’d be preaching to the choir) that it is a wonderful time in life! You are inspiring me to write a post for my own blog on that!
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Dawn, I will look forward to reading your post about life after work. It is a special time and one that we can mold into whatever we want it to be. I love the mood of that second photo. It says a lot about life!
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Wow, you’ve captured some really beautiful photos here. Now I’m more excited than ever to head to the ocean tomorrow! It’s been far too long.
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Christie, enjoy your time by the ocean. It is a wonderfully healing place.
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