An amalgam of notes, content that piqued my interest, and some writing brought together using tools that are part of my daily routine - Twos, Voicenotes and Obsidian.
Here’s how this week went down!
The Unexpurgated Version
Find everything I’ve created this week here.
The Short and Sweet Version
What Piqued My Interest
I’ve been thinking a lot about scything since Steve Tomlin visited the farm a couple of months ago. Tony bought a couple of scythes and Sian had a scything lesson. It was like watching a T’ai Chi class. I used the strimmer a couple of weeks ago but I hate the vibration and can only use it for a short time. A scythe seems more practical and can, apparently, do the same work in a proportion of the time.
This weekend an article by Patrick Grant popped up on FT.com. I managed tor ead it but it is behind a paywall.
I suspect a scythe is in my future!
What I Created
I created next to nothing this week! My non-work related productivity has been poor. Having said that, I have been recording Voicenotes and logging daily in Twos so that’s something. And I did organise a fundraising event this week and single-handedly waited on tables for 50 people.
I might not have created anything (or much) but there are ideas percolating away.
I’m thinking a lot about being 60, and this underlying shift that seems to be happening/has happened. I listened again to Cheryl Richardson on Audible - Self Care for the Wisdom Years.
She mentioned Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyes, talking together about the Power of Myth. She talks about moving on after mastering something and becoming bored. And paraphrases Campbell:
When I retired from teaching, I knew I had to create a new way of life, I needed to move out of the sphere of achievement into the sphere of appreciation, and enjoyment, and relaxing into the wonder of it all.
One Autumn day Cheryl’s reading Balancing Heaven and Earth. She decided to ring one of the authors, Jerry Ruhl, and he spoke about her being ready to shift from living an ego directed life to a soul-directed life.
Like Cheryl all of this resonates with me. It’s a weird, almost magical process urging us to seize the day, live your unlived life, do those things. Something is nudging. It’s now or never.
I’ve spent so many years of my life focused on work, paying bills and putting off things I really wanted to do. Some of those ships may have sailed but others are waiting in dock for me to board.
A transformation is taking place - like my word of the year alchemy. I’m traversing a threshold. It’s time for more joy and enjoyment.
BILL MOYERS: Do you ever have this sense, when you’re following your bliss, as I have at moments, of being helped by hidden hands?
JOSEPH CAMPBELL: All the time. It’s miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as the result of invisible hands coming all the time. Namely, that if you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you’re living somehow. And well, you can see it. You begin to deal with people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss, and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.
From the Archives
This time last year was all about the hens. We had just persuaded Phil to let us use some of his land for our smallholding. We were buying chicken coops, chicken wire, chicken feed and, finally, chickens.
It’s hard to believe we’ve had them for 12 months. They’re good egg layers, occasional escapees, and sods to each other. We have one hen sitting on eggs right now (14 at the last count). Whether they will hatch remains to be seen.
It was always my dream to move to Derbyshire. In my head, it was something I would do when I retired. I’m so glad things conspired to get us here sooner. It’s changed our lives.
Best Quote of the Week
I want to live the rest of my life, however long or short, with as much sweetness as I can decently manage, loving all the people I love, and doing as much as I can of the work I still have to do. I am going to write fire until it comes out my ears, my eyes, my noseholes — everywhere. Until it’s every breath I breathe. I’m going to go out like a f*cking meteor! ~ Audre Lorde, A Burst of Light
Review of my Week
The journal entries cover various topics related to farm life and personal reflections. The author discusses caring for hens, including a broody hen named Biscuit, and observing lambs. The writer reflects on aging and changing priorities, noting that as people get older, they focus more on "soul stuff" rather than material possessions. They emphasize the importance of doing things that bring joy and not missing out on life experiences. The entries also describe a recent event, likely food-related, where the author managed a restaurant area and interacted with various vendors. Despite some initial challenges, the event was successful, though tiring. The journal concludes with the author feeling exhausted but relieved not to be going to work the next day.
This was generated in Voicenotes using the Ask my AI function.