resolutions
Resolved: On Thursdays, I will Float
“In response to Coffee Challenge: Why I want to be a better me in 2022”
I like to say I “profess for a living.” During the fall, winter and spring I attempt to shape college students into future teachers. In the summers, however, I become Farmer Jane. I tend an 11 acre farmette in upstate New York and vend at local Farmers Markets. These two jobs keep me fully occupied. Since the pandemic began, they also kept me from floating.
After teaching overload, online classes for my professing job during the pandemic winter/spring semester of 2021, I was ready to get out of my little home office! One thing we could all do safely during the height of last summer’s pandemic lockdown was attend outdoor farmers markets.
This meant business at the markets would be booming! I went from vending at two markets with a third market added for six weeks in the fall to selling at four markets a week. Markets generally run four hours. When you add in the load up, drive to, set up and tear down time, you’ve typically put in a full eight hour day.
No time to float.
My entire summer was grow crops, pick crops, process crops, set-up, sell it and tear down. By the end of the summer I realized I hadn’t even stepped inside a grocery store all season. I just had no time. I was too tired to go to the grocery store. I admit, felt a measure of pride with my accidental local-only food sourcing.
For you urbanites, there is no “Instacart” grocery delivery, DoorDash restaurant delivery, or even old fashioned pizza delivery out here in rural America. You have to plan your trips to the grocery store, the closest being 40 minutes round trip from home.
Luckily, Amazon delivered the jars, and ingredients I needed to make the jams, jellies, and condiments I sell from the produce I tend and grow.
The markets and professing overlap in September and October. I felt like I had a rhythm going and I could handle 8 weeks of this intense schedule. Two markets ended mid-October, the rest ended with Halloween. The problem was I was completely exhausted and floating season was over.
Leaving the last Sunday market of my season, Oct 12th, I had some time to think as it is a 40 minute drive from home. I have to do something differently next year. I realized my schedule just isn’t sustainable. There was no balance.
I pulled up to the house and saw my kayak exactly where I left it a year ago! I had not touched it all summer. I was overwhelmed with sadness. I love every part of a kayak trip, strapping the kayak on the car, driving to the lake or river, and the reward:THE FLOAT.
I enjoyed my summer of selling, and the intense fall overlapping jobs. I am embarrassingly proud I pulled it off. The problem is I am still completely exhausted.
My revelation formed on October 12th, crystalized over the next several weeks. As soon as the weather warms again, I am dedicating Thursdays to me and my kayak.
On Thursdays I will FLOAT!
I’m going back to my plan to float the New York lakes on U.S. Highway 20. This beautiful scenic highway stretches from shore to shore. Perhaps when I retire from professing I’ll expand my goal to kayak all the beautiful lakes on this road.
To stick with my On Thursdays I will FLOAT resolution, January- April I will float in my swim spa and practice my kayak form of twisting from the core. I will also use my winter Thursdays to build a backup inventory of jams, jellies and dried spices.
From May-October, on Thursday’s I will FLOAT my way back to a more balanced me. I’m also sticking with my now purposeful local farm stand only food sourcing plan.
What resolution do you plan to keep?
Here is another writer who found kayaking a way to balance and heal @Hannah Bailey-Evans
A fellow writer who loves the FLOAT Anne Bonfert