It’s never too late to be who you might have been. ~ George Elliot

Happiness in the Next Act

This time of year has a tendency to be a highly contemplative period for me. It’s a combination of my normal dropping mood (see last week’s post), the early darkness and the year ending. So what I’ve been really thinking about is the transition to what’s next, there’s a plan, you knew there was a plan. The first part of the plan is of course my retirement date from my current position. The second piece is to head back out on the Appalachian Trail, my second run at doing all 2,000 miles of the trail, or at the very least, finishing the 1000 miles I haven’t done, or some combination of both. And likely a sequel to my first book, Appalachian Trail Happiness. It’s also a different time, 10 years later so the social media component of the hike will be far different than the first time, stay tuned, my training starts in a few weeks.

But the next phase is somewhat of an open story still. I know for the next five years I’ll need to work and I’ve got a lot of that worked out. I want to be at a four year school, I want to work with students and I don’t want to manage people, or very few. I’ll be looking for a property to make my own. It’s the edges and the rest of the time that I’m still playing with and that’s where the quote in the image sort of fell today like a quote from above. My next act, and really anyone’s next act is a story they get to create for themselves. Sure, we’re not guaranteed any set amount of time in life, but you have to both live like there’s not much time left, and also plan like there is. One of my favorite Taoist parables is about a man who in retirement decided to plant an apple orchard. He told his friend that he never expected to harvest a single crop due to his age, but that it was something he always wanted to do. In fact, he did live to see the orchard produce many apples and each year shared with his friend. The thing I’ve always taken from this parable is exactly what I said above and as such I’ve been thinking about lately is what big thing I want to do.

In fact planting a fruit tree orchard is something I want to do. But I consider what I want to do in terms of property and doing things like making, ciders, wines, soap and learning much more about foraging as mid-level things that I want to do. But what is the big thing, is it a focus on my writing and branching out into to fiction, is it working on something political, there are a lot of things bouncing around my mind? But most importantly, at this point in my life, it is to do things that make me happy. While I’ve done a good job of this throughout my adult life, there was always a lot of responsibility, work, family, financial issues on my back. Now that I won’t have a lot of that on top of me, it’s time to cut loose and be who I could have been. A lot of what my 60th birthday means to me is no longer holding back. Now for those of you who know me outside of this blog, that might seem a little shocking. I don’t think most people think I hold much back, but in fact I do and after 60 years of obligation and responsibility it’s time to let it all fly.

I try and find a lesson in each of my weekly posts, and trust me after over eleven years and 1,600 posts that is often a struggle. So I guess tonight I steal one from the Bard of Avon, with a nod to my high school English teacher Francis Sullivan, and to be happier, to thine own self be true. ~ Rev Kane