Hello everyone! Audacious Women, Creative Lives is both a newsletter and a community. Many of you have been connecting in the comments of previous posts, but we also like to take time to consider an interesting or thorny question. That’s what this “thread” is for. So read through the following and see if you’d like to participate. Even if you don’t post your answer, I think you’ll find the question worth pondering for yourself.
When I met with my financial planner this week, she asked me a question she has asked many times before: What would you like your life to look like in five years? As you can imagine, it has been difficult for me to answer. It’s important, though, she said, because it will help you make decisions in the coming months and years. You can ask yourself, each time a choice comes up, will this get me closer to where I want to be, or further away? My financial planner is a firm believer in working towards your dreams and figuring out how to realize them, rather than assuming they will be forever out of reach. (She’s amazing. I’ll share more about her in the future.)
My answer to this question has shifted at various points over the past two years. And it’s shifting again as we speak. I had to laugh when I heard Martha Beck say on a really cool podcast recently that she once heard a yogi say,
“I exist in continuous creative response to whatever is present.”
Yep, that about sums it up. But we can still plan and have some direction for ourselves.
If you’d like to share your answer in the comments below, please limit your response to 2-3 sentences. This will help us keep the comments section manageable, so we can read and respond to each other.
It would be a great idea to free write or brainstorm first on your own, and then whittle it down to 2-3 sentences to share. Think about where you see yourself living, what your situation is, how you are spending your time, who you are with, what kind of work you are doing, etc. Often the first things that come to our mind are the truest expressions of our souls, before the mind intervenes and starts asking questions and raising doubts. So start by writing the first things that came into your head.
P.PAnd an interview I did about leaving academia and traveling has been released on The Academic Life pocast. Keep in mind, I gave this interview last October, although it just now appeared.
I'm about to turn 66, and have achton8c, debilitating illness. I'm soon moving into a lovely assisted living community and trying not to think of my life as over. Miraculously, a former relationship has rekindled this summer and I don't know what will come of it. But it's wonderful to be admired and appreciated for true things about me. I've been a writer all my adult life, mostly nonfiction and some poetry.In five years, I want to still be able to walk and to think cllearly, I want to be actively writing things I care about, making more of my quirky photographs and living with my love, who is a genuinely good man-- so had to find!-- and not worried about my future physical needs-- so he's either brave or a complete fool. I want to embrace old age and live fearlessly.
In 5 years, I want to have bought land on a hillside with view of the water, somewhere with a warm climate. We will have built our dream home here. I will spend the majority of my time here, wear kaftans all day, indulge my creative side. 😊😊 This will be a sanctuary of health and vitality my partner and I and friends and family can exist in and experience the joys of simple life.
I have really enjoyed reading all the responses here. I hope everyone moves ever closer to their plans and hopes and dreams.
In five years I imagine I will be (finally!) living with my Tennessean partner (we met online during the pandemic) in the UK. We will be spending our days reading and writing, studying and travelling. I am taking baby steps towards this each day.
In 5 years... I'd like to live in a nice little house in a place where I feel I belong. I hope I'll be working on the kind of art and writing that I feel called to make.
In 5 years time - - a cottage by the sea that's peaceful and calm, a successful series of self-published cozy mysteries that bring people joy, an online community of kind, supportive souls who want to follow their hearts.
In five years, I have a lot less stuff than I have now. My husband and I split our time between our current home city and other places, often the desert. I've confidently found my voice and enjoy teaching here and there. Bookstores stock and sometimes prominently display my first book.
in 5 years--my passport filled with stamps, my notebooks (and my substack) filled with essays and reflections and a finished first book, my heart filled with gratitude for the unbelievably beautiful life I created for myself.
In five years - a mother to a child (or two!) living on shared property with my partner and existing family. Tending to my community through women’s work (I’m a birth keeper) but also planning a trip overseas… maybe Indonesia or Italy or India x
I think about this question all the time. In five years I want to be a published author, be in excellent physical and mental health, nurturing strong relationships with friends and family.
I notice that many of us say "I want", or if we are being polite "I would like", but that very wording implies lack. I am writing in the present tense because it is already happening. I am continuing to work (in the forefront of my mind) and I am continuing to work (in the sponsoring thought at the back of my mind). There is no confusion in the signal I am sending to the Universe. New, satisfying work is already coming along. All that remains is for me to say thankyou.
In five year, my three children will be out of college, which means my partner and I should have a bit more financial flexibility. I'd like to travel, maintain close friendships and a garden, and be working on a book. Thank you Anne for your wonderful, hopeful questions!
In 5 years, both my kids will be out of high school. I love where I live and don't want to uproot, but I've been dreaming of living a season by the sea.
In five years from now I want to live more freely than now, settled in a house by the mountains, often traveling to the States to chase wild landscapes, and around the world. I am healthy and strong. I start a family.
I write and dedicate more time interviewing people. My book of essays is published and I am working on a second book. I have a small online business which gives me financialy security. I am surrounded by love, courage, and a continuous responsibility to awe.
My focus is clear: In 5 years my memoir will have been out in the world for 4 years and I will be free to paint again--my true love. Large scale egg tempera paintings, three already in the planning stages. I will leave the writing to you others and return full time to visual art delight and struggle!
In 5 yrs, I want to be living either full or part-time in England, be working as a full-time historian for the day job, and continue to write (and hopefully publish) my novels.
This is really helpful, and related to a similar prompt that I've given myself to write about this week. Having read my aunt's artist's statement about her artwork, I'm curious to try to write something similar for myself.
With regard to five years from now:
I'd like to take part in some sort of regular, annual, creative retreat, hopefully as part of growing/strengthening/developing the creative communities that I'm currently a part of. I'd like my husband and me to have a home with a garden and enough space for both of us to pursue our professional and creative work.
Age 68, living in Barcelona, now four years into my new home there, a lovely apartment close to the city and five minutes walk from the Mediterranean and my daughter and her husband's apartment where I go every day to play with and help care for my first grandchild. My other daughter lives in Paris with her sweetheart and I travel back and forth.
I write every day, working either on my book of essays, my memoir or my next novel. I have published a novel. Whether or not I publish, I will continue to create for as long as I breathe.
I have opened myself up to a world of new artistic, creative, curious and fascinating friends, Spanish, Catalonian, European, American, Chilean, and among this group is a special friend--the romantic love I had been dreaming of and been half-afraid to hope for since ending my marriage six years earlier. Life is sweet. La vida es dulce
To be living where I do now, in good health. Having a gentle stream of visitors who share my love of the land and seek healing in its tranquility. To be embracing my creativity in all its forms and sharing it. The sharing is a big deal and if you asked me for one thing I would change, having that courage would be it.
PS I live in a tiny village in the Peak District (UK) and every day I look out across fields, woods and the vastness of the sky
Carol, my goal is to live in the Peak District. I fell in love with it when I visited it back in 2008, and it calls to me. Does that sound weird? Maybe, but it does! My soul craves to live there.
Five years from now my three kids - all of them young adults by then- are advancing organically in their own professional or student and private lives.
My husband and I have come to living arrangements that correspond best to the new state of our relationship: joyful and close, a partnership of like minded thinkers, who share an amazing adventure of having raised a family.
Maybe I have my own place, more likely we’ve gotten an apartment in Paris (each of us with our own room) and I travel for extended periods of time- settling somewhere (Portugal, Pays Basque…) to write. Maybe I have a romantic relationship somewhere - one that inspires me, allows me to be myself and create.
I accept my inner nature as a writer and an illustrator of my writing. I settle in a place to try and express its voice. I’m at one with who I’m. My life is simple but I have sufficient funds from my writing -and maybe part time teaching - to not have anxiety over money. Everything flows naturally. I belong to a beautiful community of fellow writers and artists where my voice has its rightful and equal place.🧡
In 5 years, I'll still be living on the water in some capacity and cruising the Columbia River and Puget Sound solo in my trawler. Either the one I have now or a new one.. that is the question.
In five years my son will have started his independent grown-up life with joy and self-assuredness. I will be healthy and alive and living in a small, high-ceilinged house in Portugal near my horse. We will have sold the Swiss Country Estate and my retired husband and I have enough cushion to enjoy life. My first novel will be ready to publish.
“I exist in continuous creative response to whatever is present.” This basically says it all for me.! Less is more. In 5 years, I'll be 76, and am envisioning an even richer creative life than I have now. Finally making the decision to pursue my writing now after 35 years of being an artist, I want to be published , while still making and showing my art.. other women have done it, why can't I? 🙂
Place matters. I hope to be living the life I am currently living, but living it anywhere other than where I currently live. That may seem like a small thing, but where one lives really affects one's spirit.
In five years, I want to be mostly based in Europe (in French-speaking Switzerland or France), fluent in French (having overcome my current paralysis in speaking it), doing work connected to diplomacy and social impact, that also affords me a healthy amount of time off to pursue epic hikes/pilgrimages. I will have a vibrant online and IRL community that loves to discuss culture, books, food, and travel.
Work less than 3 days a week. Give more time to family/friends. Lots more time for meditation and yoga. Slower, much slower, and more in nature. I’d also like some savings. More ability to discern what to do with my time, and to protect it more… be less impulsive with my yes
My dreams seem so puny after reading some of these comments. Id like to be able to afford a studio. I'd like to be making some good art and getting into some decent shows.
That doesn’t sound puny at all! And, although there are some strong themes running through these replies, everyone’s dreams and plans are very specific to them, since we are all so different too.
You're already making awesome art, Michele..! Combining your brilliant science mind with your art skills, you're bringing so much to the world. Keep doing what you're doing ! 👍
I just turned 73 and am a semi-retired university professor. Although I winter in Mexico and spend most of my time in a beautiful Montreal suburb, I imagine that in a few years I will spend more time traveling and writing before settling down, possibly in Victoria, BC. I just came back from a Buddhist meditation retreat in Kathmandu and am planning a month in Costa Rica in March. My husband is almost ten years older than I, so I imagine that future may very well be solo. I just hope my health holds up!
Did I say settling down?!! I do like to wander, both literally and on the page. We are all so fortunate that we can even think of this.
The first and strongest thing that came to me was 'Financial Freedom'. A life where I rely on no one financially. Where I have sound investments bringing in a good income. Thus having the freedom to make my own life decisions and move where I wish. Wales is calling. A partner. A dog. Our own land, places for people to stay. A community of friends. Stories around the fire. A swimming pool or by the sea. For my son to be happy and supported. Out of school if need be. Writing, resting, deepening my connection to nature holding circles and retreats for men and women.
In five years, after retiring from one career, I hope to be splitting my time between the US and Italy, slowly traveling the world, and returning to the writing career I love.
I believe I will have this tattooed on my arm so I can see it constantly: “I exist in continuous creative response to whatever is present.” I kid, but only a little.
I hope we will somehow live in another country. I say somehow, because we need to earn a lot for the digital nomad visa, in order for us to move (me, my husband and our two kids).
I've never stopped believing it would happen and I'm finally in the position to work towards it. Hopefully I'll comment on your newsletter from another location in 5 years!
Living in a houseboat on a canal in mid Wales is my dream! No work responsibilities but making more ceramics & art. Perhaps having a floating gallery to exhibit & hopefully sell some work to sustain myself.
I want to surf more! Whether it’s more time in Tofino or California, or active, regular trips, I want to surf and spend more time on the beach than currently. I want to have an audience for my creative work to release to regularly, making a full time living, and hopefully have sold my children’s entertainment company and passed the torch so to speak to the next generation. More time with family and friends over slow coffees and travel :)
I want to be healthy and alive. I’ve had lung cancer and will be 69 this year so in 5 years I’ll be 74. I feel blessed to be alive and get my six monthly scans and give thanks. I feel I’m living my dream life. I spend most of my time growing as a writer and artist. At present my art is in 2 group exhibitions and it’s flowing organically. No pushing or pulling. Just being. Since my cancer I’m living in the present moment with far more compassion for myself. I feel I make decisions around my creative practice. I had a dream to have a studio and now it’s happening. I swim in the sea every morning. My medicine. Travelling and exploring new places. I want to visit Japan.
In five years, I will be on the cusp of 60. I will be vibrant, healthy, and have recently earned my (first) yoga teacher certification. In the past 5 years, I've published two more novels, completed a 5th manuscript and started a memoir. Although I'd planned to retire from my day job at 62, one of my novels was made into a miniseries that's streaming on Netflix. This happy turn-of-events allowed me to quit my day job at 58 and write full-time (oh, I'm also teaching yoga. And leading writing workshops that somehow tap into spiritual practice- this is a very nascent and tender idea). Although I still live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, I am spending more and more time in France, intending to purchase a small house in the Dordogne, Provence, or Languedoc. Just haven't yet found the right place... I should print this out and put it in my safebox, with a reminder to myself to open on my 60th birthday (September 2029). :-)
What a great plan! (Greetings from Paris, I'm originally from Seattle and love the PNW. We made the move to France 20+ years ago. If/when you take the plunge, feel free to reach out to me if you wish). All the best to you!
My husband and I are 65 years young and in Year One of our 5-Year Plan. Leaving our one-of-a-kind rural home in an idyllic location (no houses in our viewshed plus everything people dream of having in a place) for the conveniences of the city and support for our changing bodies, health needs, and social needs ( me ) is tough. I've been looking high and low for essays by people about how to let go of something others think we would be crazy to give up for life in the city with easier walking and closer to family and other pluses...with no luck. I know it will not be easy dealing with a house with curtains, noise, barking dogs, unpredictability of neighbors, no access to wild Nature, and more. Now that I write this I think I should keep the mountain place and just rent a place now and then to get my city fix. Thoughts anyone? Resources for me?
Helene - your plan to do occasional stints in the city sounds like a good plan. If you have the funds of course. It is similar to one my friend decided on pursuing. At retirement they bought a unit in the city (Brisbane Australia) and also a small home in Esk. They split their time between these two and seem quite happy with it all. They moved from the middle of Canberra and still wanted some of the advantages of living in a city (museums, art galleries, restaurants etc.) but also a quieter place (with facilities such as doctors etc.) to retreat from it all.
thanks for this nice relating reply. It's not easy navigating rural and city life when you love the world and love doing everything. Great to hear your friends found a way that is right for them.
I loved reading about all these 5 year dreams and goals and achievements. I want to be still publishing and writing. I want to be still walking daily and doing PT. I want to be lucid enough to still be teaching. (I’m 77 and lucidity itself becomes a goal after a certain age!)
I’d like to suggest a book that helped me immensely years ago when I first decided to take charge of my own growth and change. It is an old book but filled with great ways of thinking about PROSPERITY and what prosperity means to you. It changed my way of thinking about what might be possible for me. I was working as a barista at age 38 and wondering if any of my writing dreams would ever come true. All I’d published was a chapbook of poems. Since that time I have published three novels, another chapbook of poems, and four collections of short stories. I taught in an MFA program for 26 years. I became secure enough financially to get my son through college without debt. I recommend this book as a blueprint to discover what prospering means to you, emotionally, financially, spiritually, and workwise. The title is THE PROSPERING WOMAN by Ruth Ross. It is no doubt out of print but might be discovered on some used book site.
Thank you 🙏 so much for the tip and your story Patricia. I will see if I can track down this book. However as you seem to suggest prospering is not a one size fits all type of deal.
Age: almost 62. And overwhelmed with caring for elderly parents while still working my own business. 5 years from this point, I think they will have both passed on and I will be able to retire from working and start Social Security. The freedom of not having those burdens and responsibilities is almost too much too imagine. I want to travel - all the places I haven't been able to go. And rest and heal and process and focus on myself. Just knowing that time will eventually come is the light at the end of the tunnel.
Wishing you strength and peace while life is so overwhelming. I hope, when the time comes, you are able to travel and rest as much as you want and need.
I really hope you get what you’re looking for Heidi. The state of the social security system in the States terrifies me. Australia is far from perfect but the situation for many in America with regards to this area seems terrible.
My partner and I spoke about this very thing last night and the beautiful discovery was that I have most of what I value already. Within five years, at the age of 60, I do want less of life spent working to get by and the vast majority of it spent on what I cherish most: living and enjoying life with my partner (soaking up the beauty of this world, meals and time spent with our loved ones), a steady continued creative practice (writing) and physical/spiritual practice (tai chi/Qi gong).
I need your financial planner in my life! She sounds like such an excavator.
Thank you for this offering. I’ve been thinking (digging) a lot in my mind lately about desire and what I truly want.
What I know is this: in 5 years I want a career immersed in writing and connecting creatively with pockets of space in my day to wander and wonder. Truly, if I really got what I wanted, you would see me living in an RV surrounded by dogs, books, mountains and new landscapes monthly.
I love that! I too have difficulty with this. In French, they say, "Choisir, c'est renoncer", which basically translates to choosing means you have to give up something else. At first, I found this to be kind of a negative view on things, equating choosing with accepting the grief that you can't have it all. But in fact, the reality is that in choosing, we affirm our identity and personality, to transform into something (someone) we love and recognize.
And not choosing is also a choice, with consequences. It is hard to accept that we cannot do everything we might wish in our short lives. Oliver Burkeman talks about this in his book Four Thousand Weeks (as do I in recent posts, but not as well as OB!). I heartily recommend Oliver’s book to anyone grappling with frustrations over not being able to do everything they want.
Where do I want to be in 5 years? Retired, hopefully. I'll be 60 in September and had spinal fusion surgery in May so I'm fairly certain I can't go back to my job in corporate retail (working freight for 8 years straight is what's got me in this mess). Not sure what I'm going to do honestly since I'm currently the only one with an income as hubby lost his job. It's rough some days.
Uff. My husband retires in five years and we'll suddenly be able to live anywhere we want to, and I've spent so much time thinking about this one! We've been living where we are because of his job for 20+ years so I get extra say on the next choice/s. I don't know! But what I do know is my wish list for a place to age in -- walkable to shops and public transportation, plenty of green, garden space, near friends and family and an international airport, an excellent public library, good groceries, good arts scene, and an activist community to engage with.
Sara - we are similar to you in that my husband can retire in around 5 years. Nothing like a deadline to make you really get serious about things. I hope you find what you’re looking for. Would be great to hear more 😊
Maybe you can do a post on the location that includes what you described here as that is what a want. I also don't want freezing cold winters and something in my budget. You said,
" walkable to shops and public transportation, plenty of green, garden space, near friends and family and an international airport, an excellent public library, good groceries, good arts scene, and an activist community to engage with.
A perfect list. A lot like my list a few years ago. And I have made compromises but still love where I am, a few miles from a peaceful town on the west side of Puget Sound. Some people can’t stand the winter gray out here but I made my peace with that because I grew weary of snow and ice in my former location keeping me from daily walks. Good luck finding the place that feels right!
This is the perfect wish list. I'm pondering the same things. Add climate and weather to this. Most of the affordable places will be more and more unlivable. Oh, and politics too. It's going to be really important to have tribes, communities and even government that is being proactive in that regard.
Probably the US, but the UK is not impossible, my husband and kids have British passports and we have friends there too! I've wanted to move back to Minnesota most of my adult life -- but frankly where my kids end up may affect that too. Right now we're all living together harmoniously while they try to find jobs (the entry level job market is pretty barren right now). I prefer cold weather to hot, that's for sure.
Housing is a little more of a concern there I think -- but options in both countries. I have friends who have all those things in Minneapolis and other towns in MN
It will, but, who knows. My aunt and uncle are a model of retirement for me-- downsized early to free up money for fun, including travel. They wanted to be near their kids, but didn't like the cities they chose-- so now they live in a beach community they love, a days drive from both of them!
Two years ago I wrote out plans that have now changed. I am dreaming bigger. I am 42yrs old. I love seeing women wiser than me changing their lives in their 60s.
My five-year dream is to pursue my second bachelor's degree in a place where I want to settle down and continue to be a happy, healthy and fulfilled creator. It's been four years since I graduated, but I had to spend so much time working throughout my college years due to financial pressures that I missed my classes and college life almost entirely, which is a huge regret for me. I also neglected managing my physical health due to excessive anxiety resulting in losing most of my hearing by the end of university, so I hope that I'll still be as physically and mentally healthy as I am now at that time. Now I'm having fun creating what I want to create, and I hope that five years later I'll be having the same fun doing it.
I'm about to turn 66, and have achton8c, debilitating illness. I'm soon moving into a lovely assisted living community and trying not to think of my life as over. Miraculously, a former relationship has rekindled this summer and I don't know what will come of it. But it's wonderful to be admired and appreciated for true things about me. I've been a writer all my adult life, mostly nonfiction and some poetry.In five years, I want to still be able to walk and to think cllearly, I want to be actively writing things I care about, making more of my quirky photographs and living with my love, who is a genuinely good man-- so had to find!-- and not worried about my future physical needs-- so he's either brave or a complete fool. I want to embrace old age and live fearlessly.
Sounds like some new beginnings for you! Which can come to us and be thrilling at any age. Your dreams sound lovely. :)
In 5 years, I want to have bought land on a hillside with view of the water, somewhere with a warm climate. We will have built our dream home here. I will spend the majority of my time here, wear kaftans all day, indulge my creative side. 😊😊 This will be a sanctuary of health and vitality my partner and I and friends and family can exist in and experience the joys of simple life.
I have really enjoyed reading all the responses here. I hope everyone moves ever closer to their plans and hopes and dreams.
In five years I imagine I will be (finally!) living with my Tennessean partner (we met online during the pandemic) in the UK. We will be spending our days reading and writing, studying and travelling. I am taking baby steps towards this each day.
In 5 years... I'd like to live in a nice little house in a place where I feel I belong. I hope I'll be working on the kind of art and writing that I feel called to make.
In 5 years time - - a cottage by the sea that's peaceful and calm, a successful series of self-published cozy mysteries that bring people joy, an online community of kind, supportive souls who want to follow their hearts.
In five years, I have a lot less stuff than I have now. My husband and I split our time between our current home city and other places, often the desert. I've confidently found my voice and enjoy teaching here and there. Bookstores stock and sometimes prominently display my first book.
in 5 years--my passport filled with stamps, my notebooks (and my substack) filled with essays and reflections and a finished first book, my heart filled with gratitude for the unbelievably beautiful life I created for myself.
In five years - a mother to a child (or two!) living on shared property with my partner and existing family. Tending to my community through women’s work (I’m a birth keeper) but also planning a trip overseas… maybe Indonesia or Italy or India x
I think about this question all the time. In five years I want to be a published author, be in excellent physical and mental health, nurturing strong relationships with friends and family.
I notice that many of us say "I want", or if we are being polite "I would like", but that very wording implies lack. I am writing in the present tense because it is already happening. I am continuing to work (in the forefront of my mind) and I am continuing to work (in the sponsoring thought at the back of my mind). There is no confusion in the signal I am sending to the Universe. New, satisfying work is already coming along. All that remains is for me to say thankyou.
In five year, my three children will be out of college, which means my partner and I should have a bit more financial flexibility. I'd like to travel, maintain close friendships and a garden, and be working on a book. Thank you Anne for your wonderful, hopeful questions!
In 5 years, both my kids will be out of high school. I love where I live and don't want to uproot, but I've been dreaming of living a season by the sea.
In five years from now I want to live more freely than now, settled in a house by the mountains, often traveling to the States to chase wild landscapes, and around the world. I am healthy and strong. I start a family.
I write and dedicate more time interviewing people. My book of essays is published and I am working on a second book. I have a small online business which gives me financialy security. I am surrounded by love, courage, and a continuous responsibility to awe.
My focus is clear: In 5 years my memoir will have been out in the world for 4 years and I will be free to paint again--my true love. Large scale egg tempera paintings, three already in the planning stages. I will leave the writing to you others and return full time to visual art delight and struggle!
In 5 yrs, I want to be living either full or part-time in England, be working as a full-time historian for the day job, and continue to write (and hopefully publish) my novels.
This is really helpful, and related to a similar prompt that I've given myself to write about this week. Having read my aunt's artist's statement about her artwork, I'm curious to try to write something similar for myself.
With regard to five years from now:
I'd like to take part in some sort of regular, annual, creative retreat, hopefully as part of growing/strengthening/developing the creative communities that I'm currently a part of. I'd like my husband and me to have a home with a garden and enough space for both of us to pursue our professional and creative work.
In the next 2 yrs, I'd like to visit with ABR in Scotland!
In 5 years time, here is how I picture myself:
Age 68, living in Barcelona, now four years into my new home there, a lovely apartment close to the city and five minutes walk from the Mediterranean and my daughter and her husband's apartment where I go every day to play with and help care for my first grandchild. My other daughter lives in Paris with her sweetheart and I travel back and forth.
I write every day, working either on my book of essays, my memoir or my next novel. I have published a novel. Whether or not I publish, I will continue to create for as long as I breathe.
I have opened myself up to a world of new artistic, creative, curious and fascinating friends, Spanish, Catalonian, European, American, Chilean, and among this group is a special friend--the romantic love I had been dreaming of and been half-afraid to hope for since ending my marriage six years earlier. Life is sweet. La vida es dulce
To be living where I do now, in good health. Having a gentle stream of visitors who share my love of the land and seek healing in its tranquility. To be embracing my creativity in all its forms and sharing it. The sharing is a big deal and if you asked me for one thing I would change, having that courage would be it.
PS I live in a tiny village in the Peak District (UK) and every day I look out across fields, woods and the vastness of the sky
Carol, my goal is to live in the Peak District. I fell in love with it when I visited it back in 2008, and it calls to me. Does that sound weird? Maybe, but it does! My soul craves to live there.
Not at all weird! Your soul will know when you’ve found your home - mine did. Visit often ..
"embracing my creativity in all its forms and sharing it"--yes, I join you in that wish and encourage it for all of us audacious women.
Five years from now my three kids - all of them young adults by then- are advancing organically in their own professional or student and private lives.
My husband and I have come to living arrangements that correspond best to the new state of our relationship: joyful and close, a partnership of like minded thinkers, who share an amazing adventure of having raised a family.
Maybe I have my own place, more likely we’ve gotten an apartment in Paris (each of us with our own room) and I travel for extended periods of time- settling somewhere (Portugal, Pays Basque…) to write. Maybe I have a romantic relationship somewhere - one that inspires me, allows me to be myself and create.
I accept my inner nature as a writer and an illustrator of my writing. I settle in a place to try and express its voice. I’m at one with who I’m. My life is simple but I have sufficient funds from my writing -and maybe part time teaching - to not have anxiety over money. Everything flows naturally. I belong to a beautiful community of fellow writers and artists where my voice has its rightful and equal place.🧡
In 5 years, I'll still be living on the water in some capacity and cruising the Columbia River and Puget Sound solo in my trawler. Either the one I have now or a new one.. that is the question.
In five years my son will have started his independent grown-up life with joy and self-assuredness. I will be healthy and alive and living in a small, high-ceilinged house in Portugal near my horse. We will have sold the Swiss Country Estate and my retired husband and I have enough cushion to enjoy life. My first novel will be ready to publish.
“I exist in continuous creative response to whatever is present.” This basically says it all for me.! Less is more. In 5 years, I'll be 76, and am envisioning an even richer creative life than I have now. Finally making the decision to pursue my writing now after 35 years of being an artist, I want to be published , while still making and showing my art.. other women have done it, why can't I? 🙂
Place matters. I hope to be living the life I am currently living, but living it anywhere other than where I currently live. That may seem like a small thing, but where one lives really affects one's spirit.
This is EXACTLY how I feel, Nancy. Place drives me. And I am not happy where I'm at. I need to be somewhere that speaks to my soul.
Indeed it does! Our environment has a huge impact on us.
I'm right there with you.
I want to have a job I love, financial freedom to go out and enjoy and provide for my parents and have a routine and friends I connect with!
In five years, I want to be mostly based in Europe (in French-speaking Switzerland or France), fluent in French (having overcome my current paralysis in speaking it), doing work connected to diplomacy and social impact, that also affords me a healthy amount of time off to pursue epic hikes/pilgrimages. I will have a vibrant online and IRL community that loves to discuss culture, books, food, and travel.
Work less than 3 days a week. Give more time to family/friends. Lots more time for meditation and yoga. Slower, much slower, and more in nature. I’d also like some savings. More ability to discern what to do with my time, and to protect it more… be less impulsive with my yes
I aim to be living in a home by a lake in New England, and living the lifestyle that goes with that. Writing and creating outdoor gear.
Married to a good man whose passions, skill sets and foibles compliment my own instead of working against them.
My dreams seem so puny after reading some of these comments. Id like to be able to afford a studio. I'd like to be making some good art and getting into some decent shows.
That doesn’t sound puny at all! And, although there are some strong themes running through these replies, everyone’s dreams and plans are very specific to them, since we are all so different too.
You're already making awesome art, Michele..! Combining your brilliant science mind with your art skills, you're bringing so much to the world. Keep doing what you're doing ! 👍
Not puny at all! My partner is an artist so I know how very big those things are!
I just turned 73 and am a semi-retired university professor. Although I winter in Mexico and spend most of my time in a beautiful Montreal suburb, I imagine that in a few years I will spend more time traveling and writing before settling down, possibly in Victoria, BC. I just came back from a Buddhist meditation retreat in Kathmandu and am planning a month in Costa Rica in March. My husband is almost ten years older than I, so I imagine that future may very well be solo. I just hope my health holds up!
Did I say settling down?!! I do like to wander, both literally and on the page. We are all so fortunate that we can even think of this.
Another exhausted 48 year old who found this inspiring! I, too, am a wanderer. Although my physical wanderings tend to be close to home at the moment…
Really inspiring to this exhausted 48 year old!
The first and strongest thing that came to me was 'Financial Freedom'. A life where I rely on no one financially. Where I have sound investments bringing in a good income. Thus having the freedom to make my own life decisions and move where I wish. Wales is calling. A partner. A dog. Our own land, places for people to stay. A community of friends. Stories around the fire. A swimming pool or by the sea. For my son to be happy and supported. Out of school if need be. Writing, resting, deepening my connection to nature holding circles and retreats for men and women.
what a beautiful life vision... can I come visit???
Yes! Please do 🤗
Yessss! I so resonate with this ❤️
In five years, after retiring from one career, I hope to be splitting my time between the US and Italy, slowly traveling the world, and returning to the writing career I love.
I believe I will have this tattooed on my arm so I can see it constantly: “I exist in continuous creative response to whatever is present.” I kid, but only a little.
I love the tattoo idea!
me too. .. hmmmmm🤔
I hope we will somehow live in another country. I say somehow, because we need to earn a lot for the digital nomad visa, in order for us to move (me, my husband and our two kids).
I've never stopped believing it would happen and I'm finally in the position to work towards it. Hopefully I'll comment on your newsletter from another location in 5 years!
Fingers crossed for you!
Living in a houseboat on a canal in mid Wales is my dream! No work responsibilities but making more ceramics & art. Perhaps having a floating gallery to exhibit & hopefully sell some work to sustain myself.
What a lovely vision of your future!
I want to surf more! Whether it’s more time in Tofino or California, or active, regular trips, I want to surf and spend more time on the beach than currently. I want to have an audience for my creative work to release to regularly, making a full time living, and hopefully have sold my children’s entertainment company and passed the torch so to speak to the next generation. More time with family and friends over slow coffees and travel :)
I want to be healthy and alive. I’ve had lung cancer and will be 69 this year so in 5 years I’ll be 74. I feel blessed to be alive and get my six monthly scans and give thanks. I feel I’m living my dream life. I spend most of my time growing as a writer and artist. At present my art is in 2 group exhibitions and it’s flowing organically. No pushing or pulling. Just being. Since my cancer I’m living in the present moment with far more compassion for myself. I feel I make decisions around my creative practice. I had a dream to have a studio and now it’s happening. I swim in the sea every morning. My medicine. Travelling and exploring new places. I want to visit Japan.
No pushing or pulling sounds perfect! That is definitely something to strive for. I’m so glad you’re already there.
In five years, I will be on the cusp of 60. I will be vibrant, healthy, and have recently earned my (first) yoga teacher certification. In the past 5 years, I've published two more novels, completed a 5th manuscript and started a memoir. Although I'd planned to retire from my day job at 62, one of my novels was made into a miniseries that's streaming on Netflix. This happy turn-of-events allowed me to quit my day job at 58 and write full-time (oh, I'm also teaching yoga. And leading writing workshops that somehow tap into spiritual practice- this is a very nascent and tender idea). Although I still live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, I am spending more and more time in France, intending to purchase a small house in the Dordogne, Provence, or Languedoc. Just haven't yet found the right place... I should print this out and put it in my safebox, with a reminder to myself to open on my 60th birthday (September 2029). :-)
I love all of this! May it all come true!
What a great plan! (Greetings from Paris, I'm originally from Seattle and love the PNW. We made the move to France 20+ years ago. If/when you take the plunge, feel free to reach out to me if you wish). All the best to you!
How lovely this is! I will hold onto this offer and place it with care in my dream jar! xoxo Can’t wait to learn more about your life in France.
I hope I am physically and emotionally healthy. I survived cancer awhile back, and health is first and foremost on my mind.
My husband and I are 65 years young and in Year One of our 5-Year Plan. Leaving our one-of-a-kind rural home in an idyllic location (no houses in our viewshed plus everything people dream of having in a place) for the conveniences of the city and support for our changing bodies, health needs, and social needs ( me ) is tough. I've been looking high and low for essays by people about how to let go of something others think we would be crazy to give up for life in the city with easier walking and closer to family and other pluses...with no luck. I know it will not be easy dealing with a house with curtains, noise, barking dogs, unpredictability of neighbors, no access to wild Nature, and more. Now that I write this I think I should keep the mountain place and just rent a place now and then to get my city fix. Thoughts anyone? Resources for me?
This resonated.
Helene - your plan to do occasional stints in the city sounds like a good plan. If you have the funds of course. It is similar to one my friend decided on pursuing. At retirement they bought a unit in the city (Brisbane Australia) and also a small home in Esk. They split their time between these two and seem quite happy with it all. They moved from the middle of Canberra and still wanted some of the advantages of living in a city (museums, art galleries, restaurants etc.) but also a quieter place (with facilities such as doctors etc.) to retreat from it all.
thanks for this nice relating reply. It's not easy navigating rural and city life when you love the world and love doing everything. Great to hear your friends found a way that is right for them.
I loved reading about all these 5 year dreams and goals and achievements. I want to be still publishing and writing. I want to be still walking daily and doing PT. I want to be lucid enough to still be teaching. (I’m 77 and lucidity itself becomes a goal after a certain age!)
I’d like to suggest a book that helped me immensely years ago when I first decided to take charge of my own growth and change. It is an old book but filled with great ways of thinking about PROSPERITY and what prosperity means to you. It changed my way of thinking about what might be possible for me. I was working as a barista at age 38 and wondering if any of my writing dreams would ever come true. All I’d published was a chapbook of poems. Since that time I have published three novels, another chapbook of poems, and four collections of short stories. I taught in an MFA program for 26 years. I became secure enough financially to get my son through college without debt. I recommend this book as a blueprint to discover what prospering means to you, emotionally, financially, spiritually, and workwise. The title is THE PROSPERING WOMAN by Ruth Ross. It is no doubt out of print but might be discovered on some used book site.
I'm 77 too Patricia, and yes, lucidity! And I'll track down the book, thank you.
Thank you for the book recommendation, Patricia! I love your story, as you know. :)
Thank you 🙏 so much for the tip and your story Patricia. I will see if I can track down this book. However as you seem to suggest prospering is not a one size fits all type of deal.
Age: almost 62. And overwhelmed with caring for elderly parents while still working my own business. 5 years from this point, I think they will have both passed on and I will be able to retire from working and start Social Security. The freedom of not having those burdens and responsibilities is almost too much too imagine. I want to travel - all the places I haven't been able to go. And rest and heal and process and focus on myself. Just knowing that time will eventually come is the light at the end of the tunnel.
Wishing you strength and peace while life is so overwhelming. I hope, when the time comes, you are able to travel and rest as much as you want and need.
When your freedom comes, you will have earned it a thousand times over I’m sure. My heart is with those caring for family members.
I really hope you get what you’re looking for Heidi. The state of the social security system in the States terrifies me. Australia is far from perfect but the situation for many in America with regards to this area seems terrible.
I want a house with a backyard where my kids can play!
My partner and I spoke about this very thing last night and the beautiful discovery was that I have most of what I value already. Within five years, at the age of 60, I do want less of life spent working to get by and the vast majority of it spent on what I cherish most: living and enjoying life with my partner (soaking up the beauty of this world, meals and time spent with our loved ones), a steady continued creative practice (writing) and physical/spiritual practice (tai chi/Qi gong).
A perfect list!
I need your financial planner in my life! She sounds like such an excavator.
Thank you for this offering. I’ve been thinking (digging) a lot in my mind lately about desire and what I truly want.
What I know is this: in 5 years I want a career immersed in writing and connecting creatively with pockets of space in my day to wander and wonder. Truly, if I really got what I wanted, you would see me living in an RV surrounded by dogs, books, mountains and new landscapes monthly.
Lovely! A beautiful goal to work towards.
This is such a hard question because my future self refuses to define herself.
I love that! I too have difficulty with this. In French, they say, "Choisir, c'est renoncer", which basically translates to choosing means you have to give up something else. At first, I found this to be kind of a negative view on things, equating choosing with accepting the grief that you can't have it all. But in fact, the reality is that in choosing, we affirm our identity and personality, to transform into something (someone) we love and recognize.
And not choosing is also a choice, with consequences. It is hard to accept that we cannot do everything we might wish in our short lives. Oliver Burkeman talks about this in his book Four Thousand Weeks (as do I in recent posts, but not as well as OB!). I heartily recommend Oliver’s book to anyone grappling with frustrations over not being able to do everything they want.
I love that book too! ✨
It’s so good, isn’t it?!
Thank you for such a thoughtful comment. It's a difficult position, indeed. It gets to the basis of the original question: "Who am I?"
Where do I want to be in 5 years? Retired, hopefully. I'll be 60 in September and had spinal fusion surgery in May so I'm fairly certain I can't go back to my job in corporate retail (working freight for 8 years straight is what's got me in this mess). Not sure what I'm going to do honestly since I'm currently the only one with an income as hubby lost his job. It's rough some days.
I also hope you get your retirement. Hoping for better days ahead for you and your husband. 💕
Maria I hope you get to your retirement. You so obviously deserve it. Sending good vibes your way 🥰
I hope you get your retirement!
Uff. My husband retires in five years and we'll suddenly be able to live anywhere we want to, and I've spent so much time thinking about this one! We've been living where we are because of his job for 20+ years so I get extra say on the next choice/s. I don't know! But what I do know is my wish list for a place to age in -- walkable to shops and public transportation, plenty of green, garden space, near friends and family and an international airport, an excellent public library, good groceries, good arts scene, and an activist community to engage with.
NYC
Ha, I suppose I should have specified budget too!
Sara - we are similar to you in that my husband can retire in around 5 years. Nothing like a deadline to make you really get serious about things. I hope you find what you’re looking for. Would be great to hear more 😊
Maybe you can do a post on the location that includes what you described here as that is what a want. I also don't want freezing cold winters and something in my budget. You said,
" walkable to shops and public transportation, plenty of green, garden space, near friends and family and an international airport, an excellent public library, good groceries, good arts scene, and an activist community to engage with.
A perfect list. A lot like my list a few years ago. And I have made compromises but still love where I am, a few miles from a peaceful town on the west side of Puget Sound. Some people can’t stand the winter gray out here but I made my peace with that because I grew weary of snow and ice in my former location keeping me from daily walks. Good luck finding the place that feels right!
This is the perfect wish list. I'm pondering the same things. Add climate and weather to this. Most of the affordable places will be more and more unlivable. Oh, and politics too. It's going to be really important to have tribes, communities and even government that is being proactive in that regard.
I love your wishlist! Does anyone have suggestions for Sarah? Are you looking for somewhere in the US or maybe abroad?
Probably the US, but the UK is not impossible, my husband and kids have British passports and we have friends there too! I've wanted to move back to Minnesota most of my adult life -- but frankly where my kids end up may affect that too. Right now we're all living together harmoniously while they try to find jobs (the entry level job market is pretty barren right now). I prefer cold weather to hot, that's for sure.
The things on your list are probably easier to find here in the UK, I reckon. I hope you find your place. 💕
Housing is a little more of a concern there I think -- but options in both countries. I have friends who have all those things in Minneapolis and other towns in MN
Yes, where your kids end up will certainly have a big pull for you.
It will, but, who knows. My aunt and uncle are a model of retirement for me-- downsized early to free up money for fun, including travel. They wanted to be near their kids, but didn't like the cities they chose-- so now they live in a beach community they love, a days drive from both of them!
Two years ago I wrote out plans that have now changed. I am dreaming bigger. I am 42yrs old. I love seeing women wiser than me changing their lives in their 60s.
Two suggestions:
Write your own obituary and work back to "five years" from there.
Make a visualization board without editing it. Let it suggest next stes.
My five-year dream is to pursue my second bachelor's degree in a place where I want to settle down and continue to be a happy, healthy and fulfilled creator. It's been four years since I graduated, but I had to spend so much time working throughout my college years due to financial pressures that I missed my classes and college life almost entirely, which is a huge regret for me. I also neglected managing my physical health due to excessive anxiety resulting in losing most of my hearing by the end of university, so I hope that I'll still be as physically and mentally healthy as I am now at that time. Now I'm having fun creating what I want to create, and I hope that five years later I'll be having the same fun doing it.