Thoughts on retirement

I usually take two days off a week. During those days I might answer some email or might hook, so maybe I don't really take two days off, but it does not matter. I love what I do. Tomorrow I will help out in the studio by answering the phones. I will lighten the load a little as we are busy bees in there.

I like to be there. Plain as that.

In the last week two people I met told me, "Retirement is not all it's cracked up to be." In the exact same words. One said they were going back to work in the fall, the other was just getting trained to work at the lobster pound. It made me think.

Several of the people who work with me are retired from other jobs and they work at the studio part time. They like to keep busy. I like to keep them busy. They are so good to work with.

I know some people need to retire from stressful careers, or regimented schedules. At some point in life you need to be free of this. I also meet people every week who tell me how much they love being retired.

A lot of people also talk about balance. And I have to tell you, I don't have or want much balance in my life. What I have is passion, and the two things don't really go that well together. I love making rugs and creating the studio. It gives me a deep and intense sense of meaning and it brings me joy.

If that ever changes I will change with it. I stay open to possibilities.

For now I don't have anything to retire from. Instead I have something that lets me grow and make and create. I know this is not typical, and I know that I am extremely fortunate. It is in fact nothing short of a blessing. I have a fruitful life doing just what I feel I am supposed to be doing. If I take my last breath leaning over my rug hooking frame it won't be with any regret.

This is what I am here to do.

I am here to make.

I am here to hook rugs.

I am here to create beauty everyday.

I am here to bring creative rug hooking to a modern world.

Just here in my time and place.

What are you here to do?

I believe that you think about these questions to,

and that you know the answers also.

We are makers, aren't we?

We know the call of the hook, the written word, the cloth, the wool 

and we are drawn to the beauty of it all. 

I am glad we are here together.