Pauline Evanosky

Thursday, May 14, 2026

I Don’t Wear Underwear

Catchy title? I thought so. Actually, it’s the truth. I am retired, and one of the special joys of retirement is that you don’t have to get dressed if you don’t want to. I mean, why bother? If I was going out somewhere, of course I would get dressed, but getting dressed is a pain in the ass if you ask me.

For one thing, it saves time. I can roll out of bed any time I want to and start my writing day. I take lots of breaks, but then, as an elderly person, I sort of need them. Another thing to look forward to in retirement is being able to take naps. So, not getting dressed in the morning just means you don’t have to get undressed for a nap at 2:30 pm. Which is generally when I take a nap if I’m going to take one. I don’t every day, but it is nice to be able to.

Also, I’m fat. Being fat means clothes can be uncomfortable even if they do fit.

Besides, Jane Austen didn't wear drawers. Women didn't in those days. Victor Hugo liked to write in the buff. So did Benjamin Franklin. Earnest Hemingway didn't wear anything at all.

I’ve been thinking about including a podcast or two somewhere. Many writing platforms, including YouTube, offer support for podcasts or vlogs. So, if it were a video, I’d need to be sure I’m okay from the waist up. Oh, I just had an idea. Don’t they make aprons that have clothes printed on them? Or my other thought was to crochet up something free-form that I could just put over the top of my robe.

It all sounds so silly. I used to get dressed every day I was working. In fact, at the last place I worked (in my retirement), the lady was so strange that she up and frog-marched me home one day because she didn’t like what I was wearing. Thank God I don’t work for her anymore. Another story, but I learned all I ever wanted to know about narcissistic behavior from her.

Now, was I being snide to mention an unpleasant person here? I think not. We can learn great things from everything we do. I even wrote an article on Substack about what I learned from playing solitaire. You can see it here. Do me a favor: if you do go over there, read my story and subscribe. Right now, everything is free, though you could, if you wanted to, cough up something small either as a one-time thing or a monthly donation, which I would appreciate. Who knows when Social Security is going to give up the ghost, and I’ll need to go out, get dressed, and find a job.

Actually, I had a brother who, as a teenager, stopped wearing underwear. He told me that when something got caught up in his zipper, he decided that wasn’t the best idea after all. Not sure what got caught. He never did tell me. I was laughing so hard, he likely couldn’t get another word in.

Michael is on my mind this morning. He featured in the Solitaire article, too.

Thanks for reading. If you are a writer, go write something today.

🌺 Pauline Evanosky

🌺My Links:

Talking To Spirit — my website since 2001
Pauline Evanosky on Medium
Talking To Spirit on Substack

Pauline Evanosky — my author’s website

My Table of Contents for Medium — Updated Monthly
My Table of Contents for Substack — Also Updated Monthly

Facebook for shorter pieces

References I recommend on your path to more psychic awareness from TalkingtoSpirit.com

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Your Dream - Take Aim

I believe everybody has a dream. I’m not talking about the dreams we have when we are sleeping. I’m talking about the dreams we have when we are awake.

I’ve had lots of dreams since I was a child. Some of those dreams happened for me. Most did not. Many of them changed as the years went by. Also, I’ve never met a person who only ever had one dream. Dreams are a dime a dozen, but dreams mean more to you than they ever will to anyone else.

Does that mean when you get old enough, it is time to set aside your dreams? I think not. Perhaps you think, as a grown-up, that having a dream is unrealistic. Maybe you’ve got a full-time job that does not leave you with enough time for a dream. Maybe you have a family and all the obligations there just don’t leave time for a dream. I know about this. It happened to me. If it happened to me, I’m betting it’s happened to you, too.

So, what’s to do about it?

Dream away. Having dreams is where a future is to be found. Your dream is not going to be magically handed to you on a silver platter. You’ve got to do something to make it possible.

Okay, let’s take one of my dreams. I dreamed for years of being a writer. I thought that someday I would write something. I would write a book. I told people this dream of mine until, one day, I realized I must be boring people. I’d been saying it for years. I’d actually run out of people to tell. I had a horror of boring people. I was also shy, so if I didn’t tell them I had a dream, what was I going to do? Talk about the weather? No.

I would write.

It happened when I was again looking for work, and once again I found a job in an office. I’d had so many jobs like that. I could see my life passing before my eyes as a secretary in a job. Not a career. In another job. Doing things for other people. I vowed that day to begin writing. As it happened, three years later, I finished writing a novel. That it has been under the bed all these years, unpublished, is not a loss. Writing that book proved to me that I was a writer. It began the dream.

Am I a famous writer? No. Am I a good writer? Sometimes. Am I ever going to make a living at writing? The jury is out on that one. Why do I continue? Because it is all my dream.

Dreams are hope springing up. Demanding a place. I will do this.

Think of your dream as a target. The outermost ring is you having the dream. It is an ethereal energy, a substance that is not yet formed. It is a dream.

The next ring in is where you begin to give the dream substance. This is where, if you are a writer, you begin a daily practice of writing. This is the ring where you read more than you already do. This is the ring where you find other writers and read their work, where you commiserate with each other, and where you share experiences. This is your “right company”.

The next ring is where you challenge yourself to write one article each week for a publication. If it is your own place on Substack, Medium, or even Facebook, it is where you publish your writing. To do this, you confront all sorts of demons you have about writing. Your fear. Your sense of inadequacy. Where you learn to brave criticism and comments. This is you showing up.

However many rings you need to go through to hit the middle of the target is up to you. Some people will earn accolades and awards and become best-selling authors the first time they write something. It happens, but it happens so rarely that you should discount it out of hand.

What you have is different. You have perseverance. You have determination. You will not let go of your dream.

As time goes on, you continue to write. As you set up challenges for yourself, you will learn how to be a writer.

Until one day, you are on the target. You have hit the middle, the bulls-eye. You are the person people turn to when they need help with whatever it is that you are an expert in.

As a writer, I, more than anyone else, am the most important person to believe in me. Do yourself a favor and believe in yourself.