SEPTEMBER 2024: Best summer in ages!

I gave myself permission to take more time off this summer and it was glorious! I took two wonderful trips and feel quite relaxed as we head into this new season.

On September 25th, I’ll share some of the stories at Spoken Lives in Toronto. I volunteered at an English Immersion course and all I needed to do was speak and eat and drink with Spaniards. It was a delight to get to know them and the other volunteers! I also swam in the ocean, climbed a mountain and saw many ghosts.

I realized that it was not where I travelled, but it was stepping away from work that was the game changer. Working from home full-time, it’s become tougher to step away from the responsibilities of work. I run three businesses, so it’s even tougher to come to a full stop. I feel like I’m juggling all the time. Do you sometimes feel that, too?

Once I returned, I took a critical look at my ‘time budget’ and am ready to focus on what nurtures me. I’ll be closing one of my businesses this fall. ‘Grow at Your Pace’ was fun while it lasted, but I have other things I want to ‘spend’ that precious time on.

I’ll take the time I ‘spent’ on it and put it towards writing my new book. It’s a passion project that will need attention once it’s published. I like to think that I’ll be opening an important conversation.

Did you know that on each birthday, I figure out exactly how many days I have left until I turn 90? That’s when I expect to slow down. The number was smaller than I would have liked. 8,030 and by the end of this month, it will only be 8,000 days. Each of those days is precious to me.

What makes me happy? What do I want to leave behind? Pondering these questions for myself and becoming stingy with my time. Doing more that pleases me.

I’ve been reaching out to people I want to spend time with since I returned. I’ve been doing volunteer more work. It’s impossible not to have regrets, but I find it quite useful to be aware of time slipping away.

I’ll be doing some more ‘death cleaning’ this fall, so that I don’t leave too much clutter, or a mess of paperwork for someone else to figure out.

By ignoring these questions, we roll along – until we don’t.

Mary Oliver was gentle in her poem, The Summer Day. My favourite line is at the end:

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean —
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down —
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
                          Mary Oliver