Vacation Time

I pour olive oil into my stainless fry pan and simmer sliced onions until they’re translucent, then add a thick homegrown pork chop, and brown it five minutes on each side. I add a cup of my homemade organic chicken broth and simmer the chop for another twenty-five minutes to fully tenderize it. As it simmers I wash and remove leaves from the organic collard greens I bought a few days ago. I pull some cooked, mashed acorn squash from the freezer, visitors from my compost in last summer’s garden. Next I cook the collards and instead of adding olive oil and a taste of balsamic vinegar, as I’d planned, I pour on some orange-garlic salad dressing I made last night.

So often I’ve heard people say, “I can’t be bothered cooking for just myself.” I find I wish they could experience the deep satisfaction that this half hour of food prep of home raised food gives me this evening. It’s a most delightful task in which I am mindful of every part of the preparation and cooking process, and in which my entire being is so peacefully and happily engaged. To have the time to prepare each step of a healthy, nurturing meal is a profound gift to me.

I retired a week ago, on the cusp of my seventieth birthday, and am in the process of re-creating my life yet once again. It is such a pleasure, these transition days. I have given myself a two-to-four week “vacation” during which I’m settling into my retirement home, going through all my possessions and letting go of those I no longer need, organizing my hobby areas—writing, editing, reading, sewing, quilting, and knitting into efficient work areas so they will be easily practical when I need one for the creative task I’ll do.

I wrote my retirement plan last August in a piece I titled “Two Years from Now: September 2013” and realize tonight that what I am so moved to write about at this moment is actually the first part of my plan. Here are the first two paragraphs I wrote then:

Two Years from Now – September 2013

I will retire at the end of this year and I envision the next chapter of my life as follows. I will well nurture each part of myself much better with increased time: my physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, social, and professional aspects. I am and have been for quite some time out of balance with these parts and greater balance is my primary goal in the life that will soon arrive. Physical : My health is pivotal. I will exercise well at least three times a week, (instead of just once or twice on a weekend, as I do now) if not more to maintain the good health I fortunately possess. I control my Type II diabetes with diet and exercise, and medication controls my hypercholestremia and hypertension, all of which lurk heavily in both my parents’ heritages.

I will have a dog, Lucy, in addition to Hilary and Button, my cats, and we’ll keep each other well exercised outdoors. I will garden more to raise more of my own food and may have chickens again, as I did on the farm all those years ago. I’d consider raising a pig or vealer but I’m too close to vegetarianism to have all that meat. A few chickens will be enough.

In my younger life, I would have viewed this re-organizational time as chaotic, as I look around and see the gathered (like with like) materials waiting to be structured, but I’m experiencing it as joyful confusion as I ponder how I will assemble this small house for the tasks and activities I want to do in my retirement.

After my “vacation,” I’ll organize my time into some daily commitments to my highest priorities and that will bring healthy structure to this next chapter of my life. Meanwhile, having this time this evening to prepare this food with my fullest attention and enjoyment reaches deeply into my soul.