From the daily grind to the aurora's glow
Life's Unscripted Moments
Monday 13th May
Unedited
I had started a piece about work, but alas, time is running away from me and with my desire to edit and re-edit, even this unedited section, I’m not able to get it done in time.
It’s an exploration into my relationship with work, my business, and how I still haven’t found the thing that I love to do. It delves into how diminishing it can feel to hear or see people go on about how much they LOVE what they do and how it doesn’t feel like work.
That’s not how it is for me. Work is work. It suits me and my lifestyle, but let’s not pretend I’d still be doing it if I didn’t need the cash.
What I’d love to do is potter around the garden, chat to my dog, and write. Only cash… which is why I have work and hobbies.
Even here on Substack (SS), I know people who are doing well with paid subscriptions, they have written books, or they have a book deal, yet they still need to find part-time work to cover all their bills. The part-time work is probably okay, but they would prefer to focus all their attention on their writing projects, and for most, it’s not possible.
That’s the reality.
I’m going to talk more on the subject next week, so I’d love to know about your relationship with work. Whether you’re an employee, a freelancer, or the director of your business. Leave a comment ⬇️
Change could be around the corner
A very very very exciting ‘thing’ popped up on a FB page last week and I cannot say more than that. We should know what’s what by Friday!
This is really hard for me, keeping quiet about something I’m excited about. It’s at times like this I feel grudgingly grateful towards Meta & WhatsApp. I want to broadcast it out into the world, but it may not happen and although I am the least spiritual person going and absolutely categorically do not believe in fate or anything like that, I wouldn’t want to jinx it now would it?
Superstitions, fate, a life plan etc. are really odd concepts to me. I can’t seem to wrap my head around them. “It wasn’t meant to be” has to be one of the most overused and unhelpful statements out there. As if, when something crushingly disappointing or heartbreaking has happened, anyone wants to here those words, or worse, “it is what it is.”
Yes it fucking is Janet, well observed, thank you.
Poor Janet, she’s almost as bad off as Karen.
When my Mum was told her treatment had stopped working and there were no further options, someone said that exact phrase to her. It is what it is. Which translates to, you are going to die very soon and it will be awful. Helpful? No. Tone deaf? YES.
I'm often taken aback when a mini rant creeps into something that should be all lightness and joy. It's surprising how much anger can surface unexpectedly. Don't worry, I am working on it in therapy!
Word on the street, we have new neighbours.
As I’ve said before I count every islander as a neighbour, but these new neighbours are just down the road, sort of, and have taken over the management the farm round us.
We see them a lot, which is a delight. The last lot didn’t seem to be as active and they never stopped to chat, whereas The Shepherds, as I will now call them, are super chatty, funny, friendly and willing to share all the farmland gossip. Which ewe has an attitude problem, which one ditched her lamb and importantly how to get in touch with them when Ms ‘the grass is greener on the other side’ takes herself off somewhere leaving her lambs behind! Turns out there are a lot of ewes with attitude problems.
It’s so interesting learning about the inner workings of a farm first hand, the passion for the job and the livestock oozes out of them. Did I ever tell you I wanted to be a farmer. Scratch that, I still want to be a farmer. That’s why we’re here after all.
Thankfully, Kiki’s tolerance of sheep has improved since we’ve moved here. As the sheep become more accustomed to daily human interaction, they are bolder than ever and not so easily spooked. Kiki’s tolerance of lambs, not so great, which leaves me trekking up the garden shooing them away from the fence line before letting her out. The only problem is, they don’t seem to want to shoo anymore!
Still, Kiki and her noisy bark aside, it is an utter joy. Instagram worthy, if it wasn’t so cloudy all the time ⬇️
Which brings me neatly onto the aurora borealis. The Northern Lights, that were south…
Did you see them? Did you, did you?
I did manage to see them on Friday, kind of. Saturday & Sunday was megally overcast plus they didn’t really show until the wee hours and I was very much asleep by then.
Whilst I could only see a greyish white haze, long exposure and a tripod revealed beautiful blue-purple hues. It was also possible to see the outline of the arc stretching across the sky and the dancers within it. I ended up on the ground holding my phone as tightly as I could to my chest trying to get the tip of the arc. Slightly blurry but you get the idea (2nd pic).
Glorious & please share yours in the comments OR re-stack this post with your pics 💜💙💚
Finally, a couple recommends:
Article: Lets talk about your talent stack by Hayley Dawson. Hayley talks through a really great way to reframe what it is you bring to the table, including your human skills, which in my opinion are more important than fancy schmancy non-human skills. Well, except for things like writing, art, music, doctory things, building, engineering… OK all skills are good.
Book: Good Material by Dolly Alderton. Binge listened to this via my library on BorrowBox on about 6 dog walks. It's funny, sincere and a little bit heart breaking. Check your library’s website for info on their audio books as they use different platforms
Take care
Han 🌱
The week in stats
Zero cakes
Cream eggs: 2 - that is all the eggs now gone.
Exercise sessions: 4
Weight/inches lost: ZERO - this peri-meno body of mine is not as responsive as it once was.
Cold dips: 3
Longest dip: 8m20 - it’s getting warmer in the tub (12-14℃). My plan is to add the freezer packs half an hour before I go in to see if this helps bring the temp down.
Week high: FACE BURNING - seriously don’t forget the suncream.
Latest sunset: 9.32pm
Increase in day length: 33 minutes
Aurora’s seen: 1
The week in Sub-stats:
Having put a concerted effort into finding new content that resonates, new people and engaging with them, things continue on their upward trajectory which is nice. As I’ve said before this kind of external validation keeps me going. Uh-huh, healthy.
Subscribers: 53 (↑ 4)
Followers: 72 (↑ 9)
Pledges: 1 (＝)
Last weeks update: 71% open rate; 88 views; 3 likes; 10 comments; 2 new subs.
Hi Han i enjoyed this article. I unfortunately am a dedicated workaholic cum floormat at the company i have been at for 27 years now. I have enjoyed most of the 27 years, but not all. Some were downright awful with severe work stress and overload. I am yet again doing 2 jobs the last 3 months as we await a new appointment. Why don't i leave? Retire? It is all my own choice that i recognise. I still need the monthly salary, and currently am enjoying my work and the boss i work for etc. But soon, i can't wait to retire, read, write, garden, go for walks, crochet. And then i think up other work things i can do. Like help someone with their tax. Maybe start a small library, maybe a mobile library ....maybe find a halfday accounting work...it must be some version of fear, of retiring too early (am not yet 60 nor am i rich). Think the financial loss from working full time to trying to enjoy our hobbies and monetise them at the same time is too big a gap...but at some stage it must be done. Secretly i can't wait lol
I’m really interested to read more about your thoughts/relationship with work. It’s been an interesting journey for me too. Like you, my dream would be to be able to spend most of my time writing, walking, pottering in the garden and with the odd bit of design work thrown in. But that seems unrealistic so I continue to do all sorts of things to keep it interesting until we win on the premium bonds or something 😂