A Big Change

Honoring Passion and Purpose

Dear Friends,

The last two months, I have been contemplating the future of my writing and my Substack. When I started in January 2024, I intended to write about aging and the many issues that it brings to the last decades of our lives. My mom died at the end of 2021, and I was intrigued by aging and the decisions we make about aging and dying.

At the end of 2024, feeling somewhat unfulfilled with my content and writing style, I spent several weeks reflecting on how I wanted to show up here. I wanted to delve deeper into the craft of writing. I changed my Substack name to Creative Late Bloomer, adding the concept of creativity to my focus. I explained in my Moving Forward newsletter that I wanted more creative freedom to explore my writing and my thoughts about aging.

Six months later, I lack enthusiasm, passion, and purpose for Creative Late Bloomers. I know this hollow feeling well because I spent decades working in unfulfilling jobs, stayed in an unhealthy marriage, and clung to friendships with people who didn’t value me.

I have been well-trained to show up, go to work, be productive, tolerate negative behaviors, and never ask too much.

I thank the hormonal howls of menopause that insisted I listen deeply to myself and act accordingly. In 2009, at the age of 50, I traded my career, conventional suburban life, and safe, predictable lifestyle—the American Dream/Myth—for a modern mini-homestead lifestyle.

The past 16 years have challenged and nourished me personally, physically, and professionally:

• Sharing my life and land with wild animals and plants

• Encouraging my deep curiosity and empathy to guide my actions

• Integrating into a small village community

• Starting and ending a small business

• Instilling and practicing the ethics and principles of permaculture

• Waking up one morning as a widow

• Learning to love again

• Building resilience in every aspect of my life

• Exploring my childhood dream of writing

• Improving my health through herbal medicine, exercise, & time in nature

• Learning to accept myself for who I am

The Universe has been sending me signs, and I am paying attention.

In 2024, I participated in Janisse Ray’s year-long Substack course, "Journey in Place.” In my permaculture coursework, I had explored the practical aspects of my sense of place. I was ready to consider it in terms of a relationship now.

From the Journey in Place:

As humans living in what’s increasingly called “late-stage capitalism,” most of us have given up terribly essential and powerful things. Relationship with place is one of those. If we can get outside—witness the place and let it witness us—listen to it and allow it to listen to us—see and be seen—then surely we can inch ourselves forward into a life that is more embedded, richer, and healthier.

Several of my early essays, as well as my one ode on Substack, flowed easily and generously from my head to the keyboard. I love thinking about the importance of home and place in my life.

And then, two more clarifying moments happened: in an online course called American Nature Writing, Janisse Ray made this simple plea: “Nature needs you and your writing.”

If ever there was a time for that to be true, it is now.

The most illuminating moment came while working with Sarah Fay Writers@Work on improving my Substack’s “DNA.” She asked us to consider these questions:

• How would you describe yourself in one adjective?

• What obsesses you? What do you find yourself thinking about constantly?

• What can you write or talk about endlessly without getting bored?

• How do you view your topic differently from anyone else? What unique perspective do you bring?

  My responses came easily and quickly, and none had anything to do with aging.

Today, I am sharing that I am pursuing my obsession, which is the world of nature, a big umbrella that allows me the creative freedom to explore the following:

• Wild Stories: Flora, Fauna, Landscapes, Natural Phenomena

• Creating a Relationship with Nature, Place, & Home

• Building Resilience & Sovereignty: Seasonal Living, Self-Reliance, & Preparedness

• Practicing the Ethics and Principles of Permaculture

• Growing Food and Herbal Medicine

My excitement over this new direction has been high for weeks. I have settled into a soft, cushy, familiar chair that I know intimately. Some of you may recall my previous blogs and newsletters, which focused on herbal medicine, plants, and gardening. I'm returning to those roots.

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Subscriber Details

Many of you subscribed because of my focus on aging and creativity, and you may choose to unsubscribe; however, I hope you will consider sticking around. I thank you for your interest and support.

If you are a monthly paid subscriber and are not interested in the new direction of my Substack, you may cancel your subscription at any time. Annual subscribers who are not interested in the changed content may reply to this newsletter and request a refund.

The monthly Creative Gift bonus for paid subscribers will remain unchanged as described here.

I believe in synchronicity - the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection - and while writing this announcement, this final message from the Universe popped up in a Substack essay:

The purpose of life is to know yourself, love yourself, trust yourself, and be yourself.

For me, this purpose has been a lifelong pursuit, with occasional detours and some wrong turns, but I am following the advice of that annoying GPS voice: “Recalculating, recalculating…” to get back on the path and reconnect with my passion and purpose.

This is the last newsletter sent under Creative Late Bloomer. The new name of my Substack space is For the Love of Nature.

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