My first anniversary of retirement is today – the last day I collected a paycheck from my legal life. I’m not going to lie, it was an unexpected ending to four decades of being a lawyer, but I would not have had it any other way.
I still have my writing profession to support and attend to. And of course, the Casa Claire chores remain recurring and demanding
But I like waking up and not being certain what day it is. I no longer have the recurring Sunday afternoon malaise, and I now can greet Monday warmly with affection. For forty years I had not said a friendly word about Monday, and for that I am, in retrospect, truly sorry. I’ve wished away a lot of my life trying to leap from weekend to weekend and my weekly draconian shift from flooring the gas pedal to speed through Monday through Friday and jamming on the brakes to slow time down to a crawl on Saturday and Sunday gave me emotional whiplash.
Now that I’m free, what used to be weekend projects can and do now occur on any day of the week. And I no longer have the need to rush through them. I can be patient and take my time. I feel almost European.
So, for example, yesterday, Lisa and I went out to Home Goods to pick up larger pots to shift our indoor plants to larger and prettier homes for them.
Lisa used to handle that kind of thing all by herself, but I decided it was time for me to attempt to break the indoor plant greenless thumb curse that has plagued me forever.
Since I have arrived at Casa Claire, I’ve slowly managed to become passable as an outdoor gardener, but expectations were always low and the flower season relatively limited to just a few months. My attempts at perennials have been anything but.
This year I decided to move two of the more resilient outdoor annual plants inside to see if I could keep them alive through the winter.
So, I repotted my Ivy and this strange thin leaved spidery creature that both need to put on some weight.
With respect to Lisa’s plants, I have become very friendly with “Victor-Victoria,” the huge fern Lisa has raised over the years. She keeps it in her office with the three I call “The Triplets” – fraternal, of course.
They all received new pots for their troubles. I have taken to watering them during the early hours of the morning while I’m feeding the feral cats and the domestic dogs – after their walkies – before going down to the basement to write. In fact, I have given V-V the last third of the Beagle Brothers’ electric pump water bowl each morning with hopes I can convert it into Audrey II –
It has grown exponentially. Next year I may have to move it to one of those floor planters. I’ll keep you posted.
So, Lisa allowed me to handle the repotting of those existing and very hardy plants. It’s a matter of trust.
Now I just have to keep my two outdoor/indoor transplants alive, and I’ve taken a special interest in another of Lisa’s plants that sits alone on the kitchen counter. It got a new pot as well.
As it is not part of the vegetative social structure of the Lisa-Office-Jungle, like V-V and The Triplets, I provide it with some additional conversation time when I am making my coffee. I’m still waiting for it to share its name. Stay tuned.
I hope over time to expand the plant menagerie throughout the house, on all three floors, even in my office, as there are many therapeutic benefits to having lots of living green inside the home. And I like a challenge.
7 Science-Backed Benefits of Indoor Plants
And the weirdest part was that when I finished the repotting project, I had a strange sense of accomplishment that I never got from the grinding work that went into winning even the biggest cases during my law career.
I actually felt appreciated by the plants in their new potted digs. That’s a legal novelty.
And I could feel my spectral paternal grandmother, Posie – who had a legendary green thumb that kept the Mosholu house looking like a rainforest – even unknowingly growing a bumper crop of marijuana one late seventies’ summer for my brother The Ginger – standing close by with a look of approval.
Well, here we are again on a Wednesday – Humpday for many – so, my fine, five readers, get that last cuppa down the gullet and launch into prosperous productivity. When you reach the top of the hill today, wave at Friday, standing in the shadows behind its lady in waiting, Thursday.
The weekend approaches – its gust front wind carrying the scent of hope, fun and relaxation.
And no matter what we all get up to, let us make today a great one.
