Just over a year ago, my amazing better half told me I was now retired. (Note she didn’t ask me – she told me. Which is just one reason I love her.) 🙂
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I have struggled with the idea of a writer retiring for the past fifteen months and have come to understand it’s about choice. It’s about me having the ability to decide each morning what I want to do.
To decide on the spot what I want to create or even if I want to create something in the three genres I write in.
I’m Rediscovering The Joy of Gardening
I’m rediscovering the joy of gardening without having to document every step with words, pictures and/or video. I find I like gardening for myself when I don’t have to focus on camera angles to get the best shot or whether the light is right or plant has been chewed a bit too much
Speaking of ” chewed” – you should see the damn rose in our front garden – it was decimated overnight a few nights ago and I think I’m finally going to get rid of this last hybrid rose in the garden.
More Stone Walls
I’m building more stone walls and working hard makes me feel good. It makes me feel as if I’m really creating something of value that may last a few years. Unlike the vagaries of the Internet and its existence in electrons that can disappear overnight – that stone wall will be there until somebody in the future decides to take it apart.
My back may disagree with this assessment at the moment but it will come around.
I’m A Storyteller
I like writing. I like telling stories.
But I confess the website gardening side of things has become skewed towards search engines and rankings, content-farms and social media …. Well, all the things that I don’t find a lot of fun.
And don’t even get me going on Facebook social media crapshoots. Or any number of big corporations like Google who control the Net. That promise of a new world of information and sharing a few short decades ago has been compromised and overwritten by the financial demands of large corporate spreadsheets.
Even making videos has morphed from a sharing kind of activity to something more resembling Hollywood. I spent time over the last month looking at the instruction side of Youtube and I’m certain I’m not ready for that level of involvement to generate a few dollars for every 1000 views of each video.
All I want to do at the moment is create a productive and creatively attractive garden. So that’s what I’m doing.
And I’m having a lot of fun with it.
That stone wall and the flowers feed my gardener’s soul more than any writing will ever do.
Having Said All That
I do want to find a way to pass what I’ve learned forward to help others.
But at the moment I find I’m a bit burned out from dealing with the Net. I’ve pretty much abandoned social media (the site software automatically posts new notes to Facebook but I don’t go there) and I’m hoping that spending lots of time outdoors in my garden this summer will refresh the batteries and give me a new outlook on the Net.
But for now I’m retired, building stone walls, gardening, making lists of things I might want to do, places I might want to visit and letting the rest of this crazy world find its own way.
Spending time in my garden is the single best form of creative therapy I know.
I’m taking the time to smell the roses, not just grow them.
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This is spot on! I retired two years ago and it has taken me this long to realize that I don’t have to do what I don’t want to do (within reason) and it has been liberating. Learning how to say “no” has been a difficult journey for me. And I, too, love being in the garden. Except for mulching, lol. I do not like hauling mulch, so for next year, I am putting aside the big bucks and having it done by the company that delivers it, just because I can and I’m not getting any younger. I’ve been following you for many years and you are inspiring by your no nonsense approach and I have appreciated it very much. I’m glad you’re still blogging and have your advice available on this site, but if weeks or months go by without a new entry, no worries! Knowing you are pursuing the things you love is the best kind of absence from online presence.
Good for you, Doug! I agree completely with Peggy (above). Although, I still like throwing down the mulch so it gets exactly where I want it without anyone else stepping on a baby plant (or not a baby). I have been putting in many 6-hour days in our yard the past few weeks and I don’t really notice it was 6 hours until my husband tells me it was when I come in . LOL I grew up on a farm and our terraced city yard is my “little farm away from the farm”. I can’t believe I have 4 varieties of milkweed in the yard after all those years decades ago when I walked beans and pulled those out of the field. At any rate, enjoy this time for yourself. I still call you my “garden guru” and will take your sharing when it works for you. Thanks for all you do for the rest of us who also love gardening!