Radical Retirement Review

Since I started this blog, I’ve mentioned more than once that someone told me it takes about five years to settle into a rhythm in retirement. Before I retired I was sure I’d nail it from day one, but my friend was right.

Today marks the end of year five. I think–although I’m not so smug about it–I’m finally getting it right. Not doing too much, not bored. The days are still not long enough, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s better to have a never-ending to-do list than to be bored or idle. I am NEVER idle. A neighbor says I’m “driven.” Maybe so, but the older I get the more aware I am of time running out, and there are so many things I still want to accomplish while I can.

Today I’m looking back over the five years. I’m not re-reading blogs or pulling out diaries. This is just what pops into my memory as I look back.

Year One, 2010: I had the privilege of serving on the search committee that recommended Meg Barnhouse as the settled minister at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin. If it’s possible, her ministry has even exceeded our hopes; the congregation is growing and a capital campaign is raising money to expand the physical space.

2011: Traveling with Texas Choral Consort to Uruguay and Argentina; singing Faure’s Requiem in Montevideo and Colonia, Uruguay, and Mozart’s Requiem in Mercedes and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Eating empanadas and drinking malbec. Making new friends, especially my Montevideo Posse.

2012: A chilly spontaneous spring art trip to Washington and Baltimore. Taking the then-five-year-old granddaughter on a road trip to Carlsbad Cavern and San Diego. I became nearly ill from the stress of nine days 24/7 with a young child. My doctor eventually diagnosed me with anxiety disorder and put me on Prozac. That trip made me discover I had been suffering from severe anxiety all my life, so I’m grateful for the trip, and we did have a good time in Coronado, La Jolla, Sea World and the Zoo.

2013: Our four-week tour of England and Scotland was the highlight of the year. Seeing “Matilda” with my New Zealand cousin and her husband, who were in London when we were; visiting the Yorkshire cousins and their families; Edinburgh, St. Andrews and Inverness; Bath; Cambridge; Newmarket (my birthplace) and a very warm London, including museums, galleries and more shows.

2014: Singing Mozart Undead with Texas Choral Consort at the French Legation, and the Beck Song Reader at the Blanton Museum, were peak experiences. A week at the coast with the grandchildren. A week in New York in November.

Most of my creative output has been been writing poetry and blog pieces. It was cool getting a poem and painting in Postcard Poems and Prose this month.

But I’ve mostly just dabbled in art, using my graphics skills for things like the condo association newsletter and publicity materials for my husband’s theater company.

In April I got into a postcard swap and something about the format lit my fire. I have mailed more than 70 cards in a variety of media including water color, marker, collage, monoprint, acrylic, photography, poems and quotes incorporated with art. I have a million ideas I want to try. I launched a second blog solely to show my art.

Newest postcard, “Monkey Shines.” I can get silly and whimsical with the small format. (Water color, metallic marker, sticker)

I’ve also been knitting quite a lot, but I’m not good about keeping photos or records, and I give most of it away.

Current project, a sampler blanket for Chloe, trying out stitches from a book I got at a garage sale.

Now I’m excited about… drum roll… stitchery! I have several pieces working, one of my own design, in a postcard-size format, so someone may get a stitched postcard. For a person who is constantly moving, I find needlework to be calming and meditative (yet productive!).

Sampling stitches from another garage sale book, painting with stitches and cloth.

The best use of retirement has been being able to spend time with the grandchildren, especially the now-eight-year-old, Chloe. She is a ball of fire, light of my life, force of nature. I adore her and she exhausts me. I  pray for the stamina and energy to keep up with her as long as she needs me to.

I haven’t come up with any new year’s resolutions, but I hope to laugh a lot, meditate a bit, get enough sleep, and keep living a healthy and active life. I’m getting a new laptop, replacing my reliable workhorse seven-year-old Dell Inspiron with a Dell Latitude; the only other thing I want now is Google Fiber in the complex–a real possibility this year.

With gratitude, wishing everyone a beautiful, healthy, joyful and richly rewarding 2015!

 

School’s In

All summer I have been compiling a list of things I wanted to do when school started and the grandchild schedule eased up.

I’m finishing up tasks that have dragged on for some time, one of which was scanning old photo albums. The photos are fantastic–many were taken when my dad was in the Royal Air Force in Karachi (then India) from 1928–but the scanning was tedious, and I still have to organize the scanned images to share with family.

Dad’s albums, dating back to the 1920s

Sample page, with Dad’s inscription in white ink

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The summer was fun with the kids, going to the beach and spending time at our condo pool. But having a kid (or two) every other week meant I spent the other week recovering. I’ll have Chloe some weekends, and I have to get used to the idea of having this week free, next week free…

… to fill up with appointments, to start with. Dentist, gynecologist, eye and so on. Lunches with neglected friends.

We closed out a bank safe deposit box, which contained only our wills, so we’re going to update the wills and powers of attorney, financial records etc. and provide to my older daughter. It’s so much easier to do it now, when we don’t actually need it. I’m also going to take pictures throughout the house for an inventory of our worldly goods.

Chloe hasn’t played in the sand area in the courtyard for many months, so when we get some cooler mornings I’m going to clean it up (again).

Saggy sand table

Too hot to sit out here anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s way past time for a condo newsletter. There is lots of news and many new neighbors.

I’ve created a template for Christmas cards. This year I’m going to do a small piece of original art on each one, similar to my Jillybeans postcards.

I have several craft, knitting, sewing and other projects hanging.

An infinity scarf, a gift

I want to refinish my old desk, which I had as a child. It’s too precious to neglect, and Chloe has put permanent marker and wite-out marks on it.

My beautiful old desk.

I can work on poems, journals and book ideas(and read books) any time.

There is always postcard art, which feeds my soul. That’s my default, every day.

Workouts. Errands. Household chores.

A neighbor recently described me as “driven.” I know I am incredibly blessed. Soon after we moved into the condo and I was feeling overwhelmed, I told an elderly friend I had too much to do. She said, “Be glad you have too much to do.” She has since passed on. I am glad I have too much to do.

 

Bodysurfing in Art

People who are so consumed by their art that they forget to eat or bathe have always been a wonder to me.

When I subtitled this blog “radical retirement,” it was my brazen way of saying I was nailing it from Day One. A friend had told me it takes about five years to get into a rhythm in retirement, and I set out to prove her wrong. Except I didn’t. In several postings I expressed frustration with how much I wanted to do and how little time I seemed to have.

I’m nearly halfway through Year Five. I’m still not sure if I’ve got it right, but I’ve done a 180 in how my days are structured, and now even I forget to eat (or delay till I’m starving) and skip a shower now and then.

Since I got my art degree,  I’ve been looking for something that would be “my” art–unique and identifiable, that I felt passionate about. I’ve dabbled in almost every medium, never feeling like I was getting close to mastery in anything. The closest I’ve come to feeling consumed has been this blog: when I sit down to put a piece together I stay with it like a dog with a bone. And body surfing. Whenever I’m in the surf, it’s always “one more wave.”

Through a weird confluence of events I believe I’ve found my true calling in art:

• Because of a stressful family situation I was seeing a therapist, who encouraged me to put my creative needs first. She also told me that people who don’t find an outlet for their creativity release it in drama instead.
• I started listening to Katherine Torrini’s Creative Life Spark and discovered I’m a High Voltage Woman. Katherine says if the voltage isn’t channeled it–guess what–comes out in unhealthy ways.
• I received a link to a post card swap. Hesitated to sign up–could I produce 10 small pieces of art I wouldn’t be ashamed to mail to another artist? I worked on it for a while before registering, so I’d be sure to have something to mail. Discarded two or more for every one even halfway usable, but kept pushing through. Surprised myself many times with the results. Finally registered and mailed out the 10 pieces I thought were the best (with at least a dozen left over I wasn’t so sure about). I’m also receiving cards in the mail, and mine hold up quite well in the mix.

Now that the swap is finished I can’t stop. If I don’t make at least one card a day I feel twitchy. When I’m working at the computer I’m coloring something (right now, as a matter of fact, while photos load). I’m mailing random cards to friends, people I’ve just met–anyone at all. I scan everything before it’s mailed as a record.

First batch for the post card swap

My granddaughter sometimes calls me “Jillybeans,” so that’s what I call this work. I’ve created a logo, labels, a business card, and *TA DA* a new Jillybeans blog.

Even if you can’t swap, if you’d like to receive an original jillybean, send your mailing address to jillybeanswiggins@gmail.com.

I’m getting my granddaughter into the act as well, and her recent work sort of channels Mondrian.

Chloe’s Mondrian

The funny thing about this reversal or priorities–the laundry still gets done, as well as the grocery shopping and choir practice and even bathing and eating. Just not quite so obsessively. I suppose I’ve just changed my obsession, but this is a lot more satisfying, and way more fun.