Weeds

 

I can't remember when I read Voltaire's Candide. I couldn't even tell you what it was about. But for years I remembered him saying something to the effect of, "Cultivate your own garden." I used it to remind people to stay in their own lane and mind their own business.  It wasn't until recently that I discovered he actually said, "We must cultivate our garden." And apparently he was saying just do what what you can to your own slice of the world and try not to fix the rest.  It is a bit different than telling people to stay in their own lane.

Still, it makes sense. I in the beginning of a three-month sabbatical from my day job.  The sabbatical is a benefit and not something I was told to do as a punishment or because I am sick. I feel the need to explain that because people can't fathom just taking three months off volintarily. I know I had difficulty with it. I've worked since I was 16 (10 if you count mowing lawns and paper routes).  Up until now I had never had more than two weeks off in a row. Well, I took three weeks off in 1992 to go to England for a friend's wedding. 

I have found this is a good test for retirement. So I have tried approaching it by structuring my day with routine activities. I start by posting t-shirt designs and developing new ones. Then I deal with my ebay store and updating listings or adding new ones.  And I've been weeding the hillside behind my house that has always been overrun with weeds despite my annual efforts to tame it on occasional spring and summer weekends. Now I'm doing some work on it just about every day. 

I have always found weeding to be cathardic. It is relatively mindless but satisfying. I have always been impressed with the persistence of weeds to grow and maintain despite efforts to eradicate them. Domestic plants require work and coaxing. Weeds spread despite your best effortss to kill them. It's their roots that are difficult to completely pull out. They also tend to be these hive type creatures that connect. There are these pre-historic type things called Horsetails that come back no matter how you cut or pull them. They connect underground and expand everywhere. They are joined by this weed that is like a groundcover that sends out tendrils that also root. And there is ivy that strangles everything in its path. 

I started with a weedeater to clear a path through the jungle and then I've been clearing section after section. It has been warm with little rain so I've managed to keep large sections bare of new weeds. And I'm comtemplating what I can plant to keep the weeds from reclaiming the ground. I feel like I am in the trenches of World War I claiming ground and then retreating.

But at least I am cultivating my garden...at least for another two and a half months.