A time for Everything

There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens

a time to be born and a time to die
a time to plant and a time to uproot
a time to kill and a time to heal
a time to tear down and a time to build
a time to weep and a time to laugh
a time to mourn and a time dance
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them 
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing
a time to search and a time to give up
a time to keep and a time to throw away
a time to keep and a time to throw away
a time to tear and a time to mend
a time to be silent and a time to speak
a time to love and a time to hate

a time for war and a time for peace.

For those not in the know this is a quote from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes (Chapter 3) one of the "Books of Wisdom", and one that perfectly illustrates so much of my life. As I approach yet another big change in my life it feels even more pertinent than ever. Often in my life I have tried to do everything, all at once, all together ~ it simply doesn't work! Often through the years I have found that by trying to do too much I am not doing anything as well as I should. Trying to play rugby the afternoon before a gig is a good illustration!

Conducting Phoenix Concert Band, Sutton

The last few years I have been trying to play, conduct, arrange, and even write some of my own original music. I have been trying to keep up with the requirements of my garden maintenance business, look after my failing levels of fitness, my flat, my family and started out on a motor sport career! It's all too much for me now. So it's time to change. I have decided to retire! Of course I will not be stopping my music involvement, music is what defines me, but I will stop my gardening. I will be closing down my business at the end of November, or earlier if my customers can find a replacement! The last few months it has increasingly felt like hard work, and I am finding it much more physically arduous than before so I think the time is ripe.

This month I will start getting my state pension, and my "Bus Pass" so financially I will be no worse off, it does still feel like a big change, and a little intimidating as does any big change. But, this is not an end, it is a new beginning, I will have more time to devote to music, and to Motor Sport!

Photo credit Tunbridge Wells Motor Club 

I know I will miss my customers and much of the work, I will miss the reason to be outdoors in the sun, I will not miss the need to go out when I really don't want to, I certainly won't miss the aching muscles and sore back, neither will I miss storing the tools or having my car full of garden waste!

I note that only once before I have used the "Motor Sport" label, and that wasn't about me! I am now only a couple of meetings away from my second season of Sprinting. It's nothing too high octane, I am sharing a car with a friend so we can split some of the cost but it is great fun, and I think I might be OK at it. There are only three of us in the class for my club championship so it is hard to tell.