Series Finale - New Directions

The older I get, the more I realize my bucket listing is growing. Time doesn't move backwards, so it becomes a juggling act of finding balance.  Self-care is important, and learning never ends. This is the final episode in this series.  This is not about closing doors, it's about new directions, opportunities, and time with people I truly care about.  I hope you enjoy my final episode in this series.  Have a great week. Remember that smiles come in all languages and in all colors. 

Transcript

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Hi everyone, it's Lindy here. Welcome back to the podcast. It's so good to have you here with me today. And before I get started, I just want to thank you for pressing play on that button. You've chosen to listen to my podcast episode today, and I know there are thousands of podcasts out there, thousands of entertainment sources, and you've chosen to listen to my little podcast today. So yeah, thank you for joining me for this part of my creative journey. I do appreciate it. Uh today is an important episode for me because it's basically representing a turning point in my focus and my personal direction. Um, why do I even get started? Okay, I'm gonna start by asking: are you a person who likes change? Do you enjoy moving in new directions, or would you just rather things always stay as is, you know, consistent, reliable? Do you take chances on learning new things, or would you rather just sit still and remain in a comfortable zone? Well, for me, yeah, I'm a little bit of both. I love consistency. I mean, I really like the routine of riding my bike, you know, getting up in the morning having a cup of coffee or having a snack before I go to bed at night. Yeah, those are kind of my routines. Well, some of my routines are healthy, others, well, sometimes you just gotta nurture your soul. Yeah, we won't talk about the nighttime snacking. Although it does remind me of something my mom wrote years ago. I remember many years ago my mom wrote that well-balanced and healthy meals are good for the body, but junk food shared with kindred spirits is good for the soul. I learned a lot from my mom over the years, and even though it's been years since she passed on from this earth, I still feel like I'm learning from things she taught me. You know, learning just never ends, really. I mean, no matter what age we are, learning never ends. Sometimes we learn because we choose to engage our brains in learning new skills. Other times, we just simply learn through trial and error or plain old mistakes. And I think I've done this a few times in podcasts. I say we often I'm referring to me. And I'm grateful that I have the physical health to be able to continue learning. I don't take it for granted. I'm also grateful that I live in a place where I have the freedom to learn, and it should be that way. We are all people, and the more we learn and help each other through kindness, the better off everyone is. Some people are knowledge hoarders. They'll learn something and they want to be seen as top dog number one, the person who is in the know. Some of the best managers I've worked under or alongside with are people that were really willing to share their knowledge, and they helped build a stronger team. I believe that happens at home also. Knowledge sharing is important. I recall a time when I was helping someone figure out how to fix audio files, and and she was asking me if I wanted payment for it. And I said, no, no, no, I'm just doing this just to help you out. And it wasn't like I was providing a whole course or anything like that. I wasn't spending days on end. I just offered a bit of a helping hand, and I didn't expect anything in return. And and you know, it was kind of interesting because I was happy to share what I had learned. And believe me, podcasting and recording audiobooks isn't just grabbing a mic, yakking into it, and then it's magic, and da-da, there it is, and you can post it online. No, no, no. There's some technical knowledge to be had, and I had to learn it. Oh yeah, and I did learn it the hard way. And believe me, self-teaching can be enriching, but oh boy, it can be frustrating at the same time. And yeah, if I go back to the first episode on my last podcast series, I can definitely tell I've come a long way. And it didn't happen overnight. Things take time. I always think, yeah, yeah, you know you're not born running, you walk first, right? And learning kind of works that way. Sometimes it's baby steps along the way, but either way, you're gonna get there if you persevere and keep at it. But time is valuable when you're learning. Time's valuable when you're learning, working, creating, time's valuable when you're spending time with people that you care about. Time for yourself is important because if you don't have self-care, eventually it's gonna catch up with you. One thing I learned as a family caregiver years ago was that you need to look after yourself in order to be able to look after others. I love podcasting. It's fun for me, and it's been a creative outlet for me for a number of years now. I learned so much along the way, and I enjoy listening to podcasts from other people. I'm also recognizing I got a lot on my plate right now, and I'm moving in new directions. A year ago, uh, when I signed up for acting classes, I honestly thought this is a great opportunity to keep my brain active as I'm getting older. I signed up for some adult classes last fall, age 55 plus. One was introduction to acting for camera, the other was introductory improv, and after the term was up, I was ready to move forward. Last night, I was at home and I was standing in front of a blue screen, camera on me, preparing a self-tape for edition practice. My partner was reading the opposite lines, coaching me along the way, and we recorded it a number of times before I was happy with the take. Well, of course, being my own worst inner critic, I watched it this morning and thought, geez, I feel like doing it over. But you know, that's part of learning. I'm learning to memorize, and that's big for someone like me who's more of a hands-on learner. I wrote a screenplay earlier this summer, and now it's going to production. This is a huge learning curve for me. I have so much more to learn about screenwriting. Oh believe me, it's a whole different world from writing fiction novels and short stories. I used to think a slug line was that trail that most little slimy bugs in my garden leave behind. Actually, it's a scene heading and a script. It's a line that tells you where and when. So, yep, I'm learning new things. Here's one that's even funnier about my learning. Okay, so I recently learned about someone being called a clapper on set, or they're often an assistant on the set as well. And uh, I'm a newbie to all of this. A clapper is the person that operates that clapper board, you know, also known in some areas as a slate. And I just think of it in everyday people terms. Like if you've never been involved in acting, you know that little board that you see that has a little thing on the top, and it's a thing that tells the camera when the camera started and stopped rolling. So if you're if you're experienced in the movie industry, yeah, this is old news to you. But if you're new to it, just like I am, you probably think of that little board as the thing where someone yells, cut, cut, cut. Yeah, there's probably a few times we should have yelled cut when I was recording. But seriously, I didn't know what a clapper was, and it's the person that handles that little board. So here's a funny thing. I'm having coffee this past week with some really wonderful people, and they're very experienced in the film industry. Directors, actors, producers. I'm at a table with a group of people who are experienced in what they do. And one gentleman was referring to having a clapper on set, and he's holding his arms out straight and he's clapping his hands together. Like his arms are out straight, his hands are flat, and he's clapping them together just a couple quick moments. Well, I was too embarrassed in the moment to say, I don't know what a clapper is. And I made a mental note that I was gonna look it up when I got home. Well, the fact is, yeah, I am new to all of this and I'm learning every day. And I was kind of laughing because the same actions he used were the same actions I saw used with young toddlers that were singing baby shark.

unknown 8:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

In fact, I did those same actions with my grandchildren, you know, we were doing the baby shark doot doo doo doot do do. And you know, and we were doing the hand actions with it. So if you've been around children and you likely know that song, you've probably done those hand actions. So I smiled to myself. I'm sure the director and actors were not referring to us singing a song about doot doot do do doot do doot doot. I'm sure they're not on set doing baby shark when they're doing the clapping, but hey, you know what? It was a good laugh for me. And I am almost 60 and I'm always learning, never too old to learn. Anyway, where am I going with all of this today? Yeah, as I mentioned before, I love podcasting, and that love will never go away. I'm always on a learning path and it's taken me in new directions. But time is also very important to me, and there are people in my world who really matter to me. And some people in my world are gonna need more time with me in upcoming weeks and months. Life changes, health changes. Time is precious. Budgeting time is so important. I think of it like a cookie jar, and for some reason, I often gravitate to the cookie jar analysis. There are only 24 hours in a day. Some days there are a million things I want to do, but again, there are only 24 hours in a day. During that day, self-care is needed, and that means biking, being off electronics, spending time with people who matter to me. Not spending time on social media or messaging or texting or emailing, but actually seeing people I care about face to face. It means being there for family, especially when family needs you and I'm not getting any younger, and newsflash, my family members aren't getting any younger either. I have so many things on my bucket list. So many things I want to do in a day. I want to podcast, I want to be in commercials, I want to do more voiceover work, I want to be in short films, I want to keep up my garden, make jam, bake bread, keep a clean house, ride my bike at least five days a week, finish scanning all my old photos, I want to visit my hometown more often, go camping more often, get back to painting rocks, I want to learn a new video editing program, I want to paint fences in the yard, and I simply want to spend more time with the people I love. I want to keep learning, writing, caring, and living. Oh my goodness, I need a big bucket for all of that. That doesn't even include the essentials like getting my housework done. Anyway, what does all that have to do with the cookie jar? Well, if I have a cookie jar that holds 20 cookies and I try to stuff 40 cookies in it, those cookies are gonna crumble and some are gonna get squashed. If my cookie jar has 20 cookies and I share them all with one person only, 19 people won't get a cookie. If I mess it up, I can't just sit back and say, oh well, that's the way the cookie crumbles. Because once I've messed it up, I've messed it up. Um sometimes you can clean it up, but sometimes it doesn't go back together the way it would have been at the start if I hadn't messed it up. So I think I'm gonna take a little break again from the world of podcasting. I did that after my last series, and then I returned to podcasting after a six-month break. I think I'm gonna need to do that again, and it's not that I don't like podcasting, but it's because my bucket list is so large, and I'm prioritizing what cookies are going in my cookie jar. I'm going to redirect my focus to family, writing, and acting. Podcasting was a great experience, and who knows what tomorrow will bring. This was a fun little series. I was inspired by the flock of girls in our backyard, and I learned a lot from those chickens. Chickens are fickle. But then again, so are people. Chickens really do feeling so, and for someone who didn't want them in the first place, I really grew fond of them. I love how I can go to the gate and they all come running to see me. Little Chine follows me whenever I am in the pen. I spent five months helping my partner bathe her feet in Epsom salts and attended vet visits with them so we could get her healthy. That little hen with the fluffy white poofy feathers on her head has captured my heart and allowed me to see chickens in a whole different light. I love Leonard. He protects his girls and he is quite the character. I can honestly say that there is such a thing as chicken therapy. I've seen it, I've experienced it, and believe me, chickens are really cool. I giggle at my title for this series, Grey Roots and Chicken Boots. It was created on a whim. I just, I don't know, I got up one day and I wanted another podcast series. Said, what am I gonna name it? Hey, I got gray roots, I wear chicken boots. That's it. That's the name of my podcast series, and that was that. And it's been fun. Like I said, it's been really fun, and uh I've had a lot of support from people along the way. And I give a shout out to Lindsay Williams of Manifesting Through Motherhood. Yeah, she is a podcast series Manifesting Through Motherhood. And uh Lindsay Williams often listened to my podcasts, and and she frequently gave me shout-outs on her podcast series, also. So thanks, Lindsay. I always appreciated your positive feedback, and yeah, just wanted to give you a shout-out and say, have fun continuing with your podcast series. She's just uh doing such a great job, put so much into it, and that's pretty amazing. She's a busy mom herself, and and she's always got time for podcasting. It's her passion. And for me, I don't consider this the end at all. It's a door that's closing while other doors are opening for me. This is placing new cookies in the cookie jar when the old cookies are done. This is about positive creativity and finding balance. It's about priorities, balanced self-care, and new directions. And I just want to thank you again for tuning in. I really do. I hope you enjoyed the series. I hope you were able to take something positive out of some of these episodes. And please know, as I say, this is not the end. For me, this is closing a door so I can open another. A lot of things on my bucket list. And I'm not getting any younger. Please take care of yourself. Be kind to yourself, be kind to others. And as one of my sisters always says, she says, please do something kind for someone today, because tomorrow is not guaranteed. At the end of the day, what matters most is people, not things. Time does not go backwards. And of course, as I end my series, I have to always end with the line that I always used in all my podcasts. And just remember that smiles come in all languages and in all colors. We're all in this world together, and my mom always said if you turned us all inside out, we'd all look the same. So be kind to everyone, be kind to yourself, and thank you again for listening to my series. Take care. Have a great week.