An Old Leaf Falls from My Tree

All things have their season. Like buds on a tree, new things arise in our lives from time to time. At first, we must nurture them, but as they grow and mature, they nurture us in turn, until one fine Autumn day, after having served us so well for so long, they inevitably fall away.

For more than two decades I worked for a society that was founded by international bankers and financial institutions. My full-time job was to help them succeed. I remember how excited I was to be hired by this society all those years ago, and how challenging and interesting the work was. How I nurtured my new, budding career, and believed in the great cause in which I was engaged. The projects I worked on helped international bankers across the planet, and they in turn did their part to create the global economy that we see today.

My last day on the job is December 31, 2014.

I've accepted an "early retirement" package. Inside the package, there is money. But the outer wrapping is the real interesting part. Yes, there are hints of "Thank you!", but the more prominent message is, "It is time for you to leave". The calculation has been made at corporate headquarters, and I am now a net liability. My work is no longer nurturing the corporation and must be shed.

And so it goes. The leaf of my career in financial telecommunications is sealed off from the corporate tree, and has already started to yellow. But there are new buds forming, too, and the life force in my own tree has never felt stronger. Dropping the old leaf of my corporate job is making room for new growth, and I'm excited about these new buds, and thankful that I am so blessed at this stage of my life.

As I ponder all the opportunities for change in my life that this moment brings, I realize there's nothing about my lifestyle that I want to change. In fact, I appreciate even more the benefits of tent living. That my living expenses are nearly zero, and that I have virtually no maintenance, and that I can easily relocate, and that I'm living a virtually stress-free life close to nature.

So as I fashion my dinghy and prepare to leave the mother ship, I'm happy that I don't have too much cargo in the hold. Instead, I can just gather a few things and paddle my canoe into the sunset.

Wait a minute, or is that a sunrise?