Candy Chang's food for thought...what is your discipline?

Have you ever thought about how you have changed since you retired? Maybe you went back to school to learn to be something totally different. Or have you created your own "Discipline" combining skill that you had learned from other stages and ages?

Remember when you were in college and you studied a discipline like math or art or accounting? It seems that we can create our own discipline combining talents we already possess. That is what I want to talk about today.

It all started with my email and a link to SumbleUpon. The next thing I knew I was looking at a weblog posted by an artist named Candy Chang.

First of all I want you to know that I am not acquainted with Candy Chang. But I do know that I love her website and better yet I love the range of her creative nature. She has given a TED talk so you know she is remarkable. She has done everything from a chalkboard on her house grown into a book to an exhibit in Las Vegas called Confessions.

After the death of someone she cared about, she painted blackboard paint on the exterior wall of her house and asked the simple question, "What do you want to do before you die?" She left chalk I think because the wall filled with statements from people passing by and soon other walls began to spring up around the world. Hence the book.

But the simple 2 minute YouTube video you see above touched me more than all of her projects put together. The video leads us down to the garden path so a place where you will ask yourself about what you are good at...do you have a specific discipline that you excel at or are you like the rest of us...eclectically blessed. Jack of all trades as it were.

As I write about the retirement stage of my life I am more and more convinced that our happiness is directly related to what we learn or master as we age. We don't usually take up the harp if we have no knowledge of music. Yet I have known people to do just that. That person is very unique and wonderful I think. They have a clear picture of what harp playing will bring to them as they learn the discipline.

I took up writing when I was around 60 years old. I had been a teacher and did a lot of writing for my work but I had never really let myself just write what I wanted. First of all, I wanted to see my words in print somehow. Not that I thought anyone wanted to read but still I needed that kind of gratification. Then along came blogging and I was feeling hopeful.

Do you know what almost stopped me from ever beginning? My typing skills. While I knew I had the words and the ideas, I did not trust myself to put them into a blog because I knew that I was not a good typist. In order for me to practice one discipline, I had to be very good at another.

But write I did, day after day. The discipline of typing my words and rereading to correct was just what I needed. I learned and improved and worked. I had found a "Discipline" of my very own making.

So what discipline have you created at this time in your life?

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Five Little Ducks...stories played out!

The children's song about the little ducks leaving the nest to fly away has always been one of my favorites. Every mother has seen their babies fly away and rejoiced. Life comes full circle. Animals live that same cycle. Babies grow up. Birds leave the nest. Life goes on. So when the three ducks show up every year near my patio I am not surprised. But I am puzzled that it always seems to be the same three. Something just doesn't seem right. It appears the one did not fly away at all. Five little ducks Went out to play Over the hills and far away. The mommy duck went "quack, quack quack," Four little ducks came swimming back... And then Three Two and One. A drake, a female duck (a hen) and a not quite a drake but still not a hen gather here on the 5th green of the golf course. She leads and the other two follow along obediently. They eat, sleep, and guard each other. Each and every day this time of year they come. I have not named them. Jinxing them would be very pos...

How to be a 12 Month Snow Bird

Vacation Rental in Mexico I live around snowbirds 6 months of the year. I have heard those people say that they all want to live the "snowbird" lifestyle when they go home. But it just is not possible. They are isolated and cold. Social activities with friends and beautiful weather are greatly missed when they return to the realities of their "real" life. One couple I visited with lately returned to Florida this morning where they own a home. The woman is a nurse and works in the summer. They are not going home until May this year. It is too cold in Michigan in the spring so they are hoping to extend their good weather season by simply staying away. Besides that they love their Florida lifestyle a lot. Last week I visited with a woman that lives the snowbird lifestyle year around. No going home to the Midwest in the spring. They essentially vacation 12 month out of the year. And I thought their solution for avoiding unpleasant weather and keeping their lifestyle in...

If You Build It, They Will Come...Maybe!

It all began with a antique window in front of a local shop. It had been painted yellow, the glass was loose and all of the hinges and latches were gone. My old friend Betty would have approved...she would tell me it was just broken enough and damaged enough for me to drag it home. When my dear husband saw it, he wondered what he was meant to do with it. Imagine his surprise when he was presented with the plan to build a small neighborhood library exchange. It wasn't the first time he had heard me ask "How hard could it be?" Now it is six weeks later and we mounted the darling little library exchange on two posts in our front yard. I love it. Now the question is, will they come or has the time passed when people actually read something made of paper? Our association president stopped by and admired the box but left after telling me that he only read books on his Kindle. We will see. Would you bring a book and take a book? b+

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