My brain still hates how hard and long real work takes. It hates that you can’t push a button or twitch your nose like in Bewitched and things get done. It’s almost 3 hours later that I’m finished weeding and planting 2 cucumbers and a bitter melon in the greenhouse, planted 8 cabbages in the raised bed and filled 3 raised beds with water. While I had the hose out, I washed the dust off 2 walls of the house and the walkway.

I can’t say I was loving all that work. I’m hot, sweaty and dusty. I have a whole summer of that to look forward to. Oh my God, what was I thinking of! Yet if not putting my heart and muscles into the earth, what would I do? I don’t have a yearning to lounge on an ocean liner or on the beach. Been there and done that. I wouldn’t call myself a globe trotter but I’ve seen and lived in different parts of the world. I’m not mad for travelling, though I feel I ought to. I feel guilty I don’t. The first thing people ask when you retire is are you going to travel. Why is that?

I I think there is no easy way to have a meaningful life. It’s no easy thing to find purpose and passion. You have to do the work, dig deep, till your mind, plant seeds, water and add compost regularly to percolate it all and watch for germination and growth. That is it. That is all.