Personal 2016 Summation

The year is drawing to an end and I felt slightly hesitant in reflecting over my personal year until I reviewed my desk journal.  So let me begin by saying that I am truly grateful for the impulse that made me buy “Jumpstart Your Thinking” by John Maxwell since it inspired me to use the business journal to set down not only goals but daily tasks and successes.  This has helped me to feel accountable for my days in a positive way rather than as a dreaded challenge.  I was able to log my progress in my reading, my studies, my adventures with the hens & bees and all the new plantings in my garden.

I have a few days left in my “Bible in One Year” reading and will give you those reflections in another blog but I feel very happy to know that I have finally read the bible cover to cover.  Overlapping the reading I have finished two Yale courses that covered both the Old & New Testaments which really assisted in putting my bible reading on a different level (historical rather than religious).  Supplemental to that I read nearly a dozen books on spirituality and other religions; again this will be recounted in an additional blog.  But I can with perfect satisfaction make a mental tick on the goal of “studying religions” with the help of John Maxwell helpful guidance.

I took time in the spring to plan my garden as well as set my long term strategy to create a sustainable farm.  This meant holding off on buying any bee hives yet seek out a mentor to help me get a more solid foundation for when I do start beekeeping in earnest.  I therefore concentrated on increasing my chicken flock and studying their habits in the hopes of someday becoming a Chicken Whisperer.  Frankly I am not so sure that this is possible as my death toll versus recovery has been sadly unbalanced.  My frugal nature has not allowed me to take a $6 chicken to the vet and my Google experience on hen ailments has not led me to a proper diagnosis of most of the hens (or I may be catching the symptoms when they are too far gone).  Nevertheless I get considerable amusement out of my girls and I know that I will keep my brood for many years to come.

If I had only known that we were going to get the rainiest summer on record I would have planted more fruit trees and bushes but I did manage to plant two lovely apple trees, some cherry and blueberries bushes as well as a half dozen gooseberry bushes.  I also set up a beautiful raised bed of strawberries with a bird net to protect them from those voracious birds.  I saw my asparagus plantings from the year before come back to life which encouraged me to expand the plantings further.  The vegetable garden was somewhat pathetic but I did get a good crop of potatoes and zucchini.  The lesson learned was that some of the vegetables do better in the ground rather than in a raised bed so I will have to structure the vegetable patch a little more next spring.  My one failure this summer was not getting any raspberries in as the ones planted the previous year did not survive.  I shall be more aggressive with them this coming spring since I love raspberries.

I had a few adventures in beekeeping and was initiated into bee stings with no trouble worth mentioning.  This winter I am going to experiment with making creamed honey as I believe this will aid me in marketing my honey in years to come.  Marketing for both the honey and the eggs is one of the things I have been studying this fall and winter but at the end of the day my feeling is that I want to enjoy my retirement hobbies rather than create a highly profitable business.  If I can earn a little living I shall be pleased but I am not out to make a killing.  I take Wendell Berry’s statement to heart which really helps keep me in balance when I become a little too ambitious.

Through all the activity I managed to retain an active social life and stayed connected with many of my former colleagues as well as rejuvenating my book club.  Friendship, I realize, need constant attention and nurturing if they are going to survive for the long haul.  If one is sensitive it can sometimes seem as though all the burden falls on you but this is where I find that I personally need to stay humble as well as empathetic which is challenging sometimes.  Three 21-Day Oprah & Deepak Meditations this year has assisted in centering those characteristics, pride and egotism.  The three sessions were Finding the Lightness in Your Life, Getting Unstuck Leads to Fulfillment and Creating Peace from the Inside Out.  The sessions are offered free every few months and are very valuable in looking inward.

To sum up the year, it has been one of reflection, of activity and of social living.  The world is both complex and simple; people are complex and simple and life is both simple and complex.  You may think “she isn’t saying much” but then you may want to think a little deeper and go “ah, now I see”.