Growing a Garden Instead of a Career

Autumn in South Florida is wonderful. It is the most beautiful season here. You wake up to 70 degree weather and it gets up to the mid 80’s during the day. It’s when people come out of their air-conditioned homes (after seven months of 90 plus weather) and get things accomplished. It is a time of unlimited outdoor opportunities. I have started new lists of projects to be done and am actually moving down the list, crossing off the completed items, as I love to do.

Flowering plants:  A job combining work and love

One of my favorite tasks is gardening. While I was working, my career ideas never included the time necessary to maintain a beautiful floral garden. Flowering plants require work and love. After living almost all of my life in Chicago, I actually feelguilty shopping for plants in November. My kids back home are dealing with temperatures in the 40’s and I am in shorts walking through the nursery thinking about planting flowers. Since I have stopped working I find that I can spend an hour just walking up and down the aisles in the nursery talking to the knowledgeable employees, picking their brains about plants. I am learning a great deal from these people and appreciate the time they spend teaching me about species that could never have survived in Chicago.  I buy a few at a time, nurture them and watch them grow into strong, gorgeous living ornaments for my home. Gardening is turning into a hobby that I could never have pursued to this degree while I was employed and I love it. It makes me wonder how many more activities I will get to explore now that I have the time. Maybe it’s time to take out that old mix-master and the measuring cups because cake baking might be my next endeavor.

Categories: Retirement, Career Management & Transition