April 2020 » Living | Loving

Retirement goals

I am not quite sure if people set retirement goals, but considering how I will live my life for the next 30 years makes me think I might need to. Certainly not the first of my goals, but on recommendation from a doctor (to slow down my highly active and anxious mind) I enrolled in a course on Meditation and Mindfulness. I set my goals around the things that bring me the greatest pleasures: write, read, exercise, garden, travel, and socialise.

The most important goal or direction I will take is to develop and understand myself by doing inner work. This work is to ensure that my relationships with friends, family, and the community are undertaken in such a way that they are meaningful, purposeful, and loving. My intention is to slow life down, listen, and hear what people are saying.

I acknowledge the work of Robert A. Johnson. Through him, and his Jungian influence, I have learned more about people and relationships than I could have ever have learned from any other.

Retirement rehearsal

Country cycling lane — Quiet country cycling lane

I’ve been rehearsing retirement these last few months. In saying that, I have been working; in the home, helping out on the farm and project managing a renovation. I guess I have never acknowledged these things as work. Mind you, I don’t get paid for any of those jobs (where payment for work creates the differentiation between them).

On my Home page, I referred to a set of goals that I hoped to achieve by creating this website. I was going to ‘document the transition from work to retirement’ and this is how it is looking thus far.

City life vs farm life through lockdown

Through a global pandemic, would it be better to self-isolate in the city or country? I have chosen to stay in the city at a house we share/rent with our daughter and her family. Australia is in lockdown and WA has closed its internal borders. The country is quiet enough as it is. As I write, I worry how long this will all last.

City life

Through this period of self-isolation, I feel as though I am on some type of perfect holiday; going to the beach, walking, cycling, reading, blogging, watching Netflix, SBS, and ABC On Demand. I finished Delia Owen’s book, Where the Crawdad’s Sing, a brilliant novel and well worth reading. Follow the Walking, listening, and reading across the acres post above for a full list of recently read books.

South City Beach during COVID19 social distancing regulations.

Farm life through covid19

Meanwhile, the farmer went home to feed sheep and truck them to another farm, 50 km away for the last of the summer’s feed. The dry 2019 winter meant that there wasn’t a great deal of crop stubble, and even less sheep feed available.

Although we can’t do much at all under this lockdown regime, anything that is of value in the scheme of things is still possible (buy and prepare food, care for others, exercise). I think over time that it will become quite evident that life will not return to the way we lived it previously.

Renovations under travel restrictions

Border shutdown

Under the COVID19 lockdown, there had to be clear and compelling reason for travel outside your residential border region. Other than for medical purposes, travel restrictions could be lifted where it relates to work and other essential services. It became apparent throughout the lockdown that doing renovations under restricted travel conditions during COVID19 were not mutually exclusive.

Pushing out the walls so that the room opens onto the garden — Pushing out the walls so that the room open onto the garden

Taking a break from work during COVID19

A BREAK from work

I am taking a break from work after almost 30 years in the same job. The older I get, the less I am able to tolerate work stress and pressure. Right now, life is wonderful. But we are in the midst of a pandemic and countries all over the world have closed its borders. I am self-isolating at the farmhouse during COV19. In fact, I joke to others that I have been self-isolating for years because we are so remote.

Some of the stunning trees of the wheatbelt.