Day 1 of the rest of my life
Day one of my freelancing life --- I would be
quite happy if every day was exactly like yesterday.
While the bone from Daddy's Thanksgiving ham simmered into a pot of
bean soup, I drew a cartoon of a medical researcher marrying an
academic for my first (second?) cousin once removed's medical research journal.
Then I took a break to split some wood, help Mark bring my broken car
to the mechanic, and chat over email with the co-author of a natural
history book I'll be working on for the next little while. All
while fat flakes of snow settled over the farm.
The late Helen
and Scott Nearing, famous back to the landers, divided their days
into thirds --- one part for "bread" labor, one part for the arts, and
one part for social and civic interactions. I know that my
outlook on life is much better when I similarly divide up my time,
though the happiest division for me (since my bread labor more often
involves sitting in front of the computer) is one part bread labor, one
part arts, one part physical work, and one part feeding our souls
through home cooking. I had lost sight of this happy medium over
the last year, and I'm glad to have refound it.
(I admit I'm also thrilled that I managed to pull together some
passable drawings of people, which I profess to being unable to
draw. I think I dreamed about that medical researcher last night
after tossing so many drafts across the Atlantic Ocean to be perused.)
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.