In July 2018, I posted my first blog entry, and 170 short stories later, I am excitedly planning for year five.
I still have the scrap of paper where I wrote down ten names of people I thought might read my stories. That was thousands of readers ago, which goes to show that when you have little confidence in yourself other people can boost you up.
Lots of water has gone under the bridge since then, many hours of researching, hunting for photos, writing and editing. I have connected with many people through my stories.
Over the past year, I wrote about the relationships in our lives, make-up, mental health, decluttering, my experiences in sales, the history of women in the workforce, a veterans story and the continuing COVID pandemic. In the coming months, watch for stories about moonshines, the dirty thirties and veterans.
With the help of community members, past and present, I wrote the history of several former Leask businesses, including The Paris Cafe, The Hotel Windsor and The Bowling Alley. Nostalgic tales of riding bicycles, mom‘s rocking chair and attending fall suppers brought back happy memories for many. People have told me that they’ve laughed, cried and spent time talking to family and friends about memories my stories brought back.
Future Plans
I plan to continue freelance writing, blogging and to record the stories on my podcast. I want to do some interviews on the podcast as well.
While brainstorming ideas for a nonfiction novel, a revelation hit me! I realized I have written about all these real-life characters from the past hundred-plus years, and I’ve researched the time periods they lived in, so I already have a foundation for a story.
My book is in its infancy, but I am excited to use these individuals as inspiration; their triumphs, tragedies, love stories and the part they played in the history of our country. Mom once told me that history is real life with some fiction thrown in. I think fiction is imagination with a bit of real-life thrown in.
Another aspect of my business is my gift shop, where I make and sell various bath and body products and other items. The market for all things handmade is saturated right now; being at home during the pandemic, many people started making and selling products. I’ve been doing this for three years now, and I’m finally getting to the point where I can nail down a number of signature products that I want to continue making.
I made quite a number of products, it has definitely been a huge learning curve, but I love creating things and bringing them to the point where someone buys them. The process can be a lot of work but very satisfying. I do a few trade shows every year and collaborate with businesses in my area.
It is important to me to continue to evolve; on the blog, I added a mini-series of my garden favourites and my random and ridiculous video series. Life’s random and ridiculous experiences inspire these video segments that people can relate to.
I love it when people read my stories and share their experiences and knowledge; I learn something new from someone through each story. Unravelling memories is like peeling an onion; under each layer, there’s another layer, and sometimes it takes some digging and a few tears to reach the bottom layer.
When an idea strikes me, I run with it; I don’t always think things through and the results vary, but that seems to be how I roll these days. If you are like me and get carried away working hours and hours on various projects, it can be beneficial to stop and ask yourself if what you are doing supports the life you're trying to create.
Below is the first blog post I ever wrote, a week after I stopped working full time and became my own boss. Since I became the boss of me, I have worked harder than I ever have, but it has also been one of the most creative and rewarding times in my life.
I still believe in intuition, listening to the inner voice in your head and that feeling in your gut. I am glad I trusted those feelings and let them take me in a new direction. I’ve faltered many times, my coffee has gotten cold at home, too, and I still strongly dislike the sound of an alarm clock.
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Episode One
July 7, 2018
"Is It The Beginning Or The End"
I had been thinking about pulling the proverbial pin for the past five or six years after a 37.2-year career. This year it somehow felt like the right time. I am not sure how to explain it exactly - I just had a feeling deep in my soul that it was time to move on.“The most difficult thing is the decision to act; the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its reward”. Amelia Earhart
Being the intuitive person I am, I felt the need to trust and follow this feeling. Making such a life change while not having a clue as to the direction I am being drawn in is taking a huge leap of faith for sure. At the same time, I also feel a sense of excitement about what the future may hold.
I find it interesting that throughout our working years, we dream of the day we can retire and leave it all behind - the early mornings, the cold cup of desk coffee, the quirks of our coworkers, the crappy lunches, the commute, the rushed evening meals, chores and activities. Then when it finally comes time to make the big retirement decision, so many of us are terrified of this life change. Familiarity was comforting and easy, change is what is hard.
I ask my recently retired friends what they are up to these days, and the response is something vague like “I am living the retirement dream”. What do they mean by that? Seriously, that statement tells me nothing? I imagine each of us thinks the other has all the answers to this next stage of life and that the other person is the one living the dream, but in reality, none of us has it all figured out. We are all stumbling along trying to make the right choices on the fly - or maybe it is just because women at this stage of life seem to like wine!
The best part of retirement so far is not turning a morning alarm on. I never realized how I dreaded and anxiously anticipated that hideous, demanding sound. To be able to wake up when your body is ready and sit down and enjoy that first precious cup of coffee is truly one of retired life’s small blessings.
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"Retirement | 10 Tips To Live A Better Life”
"7 Things I’ve Learned | Retirement | Year 1”
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