Reinventing Myself -- Again!

I’ve concluded that each of us should reinvent ourselves every decade or so. Like Morley’s ghost we become chained to burdens of the past, fetters of endeavors not completed, the residue of good intentions. Like that exercise bike in the attic. So I recommend a fresh start in another direction, or a new residence, or a new set of objectives. A new job, if you’re still among the working class. New projects if you’re retired.

But cautiously, please. Like a Darwinist would do it. As Abraham introduced his pagan wife Sarah to his God Yahweh. Little steps, gradual progress in a new direction. A decade or so I reinvented myself as a writer. I felt my way forward and didn’t give up my soil ecologist persona immediately. Now it’s time for me to try something different.

I’ve decided to reinvent myself as a hermit in the woods. I will emulate Henry David Thoreau. I’ll be a naturalist observing the ebb and flow of the seasons. In my new cabin on Freeman Ridge. I’m excited and inclined to leap right in, but I know I must go slowly. I’m accustomed to town life. Can I adapt to solitude? I look forward to simplifying my life, to cutting loose from the clutter of years.

Oh, I intend to keep writing fiction. And studying mites and their relatives at the Georgia Museum of Natural History. Perhaps the cabin on Freeman Ridge will offer me some new dimensions--.

For now, I’m like Kenny Rogers’s gambler. What to throw away, and what to keep. My exercise bicycle is long gone!

Dac Crossley
May 14, 2014.
Happy birthday, Diana J.

“I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.” – Albert Einstein.

Comments

[Patty]

I've been accused of reinventing myself often and now I feel more positive about it. Is Freeman Ridge in Georgia? I'm intrigued but too social myself...although perhaps less than I used to be.

[Lesley A. Diehl]

I love your courage and wish you well as a hermit! But keep writing.

[Laurie]

Don't give up the blog!

[Jan okey]

You have a very large cheering section behind you. Should have NOT sold your
exercise bike - Reconfigured, you could
generate your own electricity. Hermits do
things like that.....new mites to study.
reinvention is good.

[Celia Yeary]

I love your approach to life, Dac. I'm liking solitude more and more. Not long ago, I had to talk to someone on the phone, or have coffee with a group, or shopping, etc. But during the past few years, I enjoy turning down invitations and staying home. Well, I've always been somewhat of a homebody, but it's worse now. I hope you do keep writing, of course.

[Gene Keirsey]

I congratulate on giving up the exercise bike. I did that years ago. LOL
Your Favorite Brother In Law

[kitti]

A good time to brush up or begin your birding skills. There will be different birds in the woods than you had in town. Keeping track of the first time you heard a spring migrant, or just a list of the birds you see or hear in your vicinity can be quite fun.

[shirley white]

You are doing what many of us would like to do! More power to you!

[Chris Antenen]

What? Everything I do now is slowly. She who was once maligned for being quick hands is no more The other line in that Kenny Roger's song gives more pause than the first two. When to fold 'em and when to walk away. We're not quite ready for those yet.

[Nat]

I like the notion... of reinvention... and doing so slowly