{"id":1750,"date":"2016-05-31T04:45:05","date_gmt":"2016-05-31T11:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/?p=1750"},"modified":"2016-05-31T04:45:05","modified_gmt":"2016-05-31T11:45:05","slug":"welcome-to-the-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=1750","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/mb_color_bestyearsblog-150x15013.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/mb_color_bestyearsblog-150x15013.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"mb_color_bestyearsblog-150x1501\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1751\" \/><\/a>When I climb Wheeler Peak (as I have every summer in recent years), I experience two emotional highs. The first comes when I see the mountains; I guess it\u2019s the memories of adventures-past and the thrill of once again pitting myself against the peak. The second follows, after the summit, when I\u2019m overcome with a sense of accomplishment, and looking forward to a hot shower, good meal and well-earned rest with my hiking buddies.<\/p>\n<p>On this my first official day of retirement, my feelings are more like the first. I\u2019m not overly excited about sleeping in on Mondays (although I can now). I\u2019m more taken with thoughts of a new challenge, a peak to climb if you will, with unfamiliar trails, unknown demands (physical, mental, maybe even spiritual), and, of course, unrealized dreams.<\/p>\n<p>And I have so many\u2014dreams that is. You\u2019ll hear about them and you\u2019ll experience the ups and downs of retirement\u2014at least the first 60 days or so.  Because, through this blog, I intend to take you along.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019ll be therapeutic (I see things more clearly when I write them down), and, besides, my pleasure in hiking is always multiplied by the number of friends who share the journey. <\/p>\n<p>I hope you enjoy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I climb Wheeler Peak (as I have every summer in recent years), I experience two emotional highs. The first comes when I see the mountains; I guess it\u2019s the memories of adventures-past and the thrill of once again pitting myself against the peak. The second follows, after the summit, when I\u2019m overcome with a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1752,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions\/1752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}