Things to do when you can't do what you used to do.

This morning, December 1st, 2025, I was texting with a friend who was talking about having what she calls 'the blahs' and I know that feeling well. It was my genetic gift to be almost always inspired by the world. Sparks were always going off in my mind from things I read or saw, or heard in conversation. But pnce in awhile, especially now that I am old, I get the blah's and even worse, the melancholy cloud drops over me - both at the same time! Ugh!

My subtitle for some of these posts should be "getting old/being old" but the fact is that younger people get this problem too. In fact when I retired, a bunch of teachers my age and also retiring were worried about what they were going to do with themselves. They had no hobbies! Hobbies seemed to be always banging on my door like salespeople "Buy Me - Try Me - Volunteer Here!" So when I retired, I DROVE (one of my go-to stimulators) and I found such interesting places, I began to volunteer everywhere, from Port Norris and the Bayshore Discovery Project to the Alice Paul Foundation in Mount Laurel with several places in between: Camden County Historical Society in Camden, Gloucester County Historical Society in Woodbury, and Red Bank Battlefield in National Park. In each of those places I developed a keen and avid interest and collected dozens of books which I read - they were each a passion, literally! And I made friends.

So what happened when I got visual disability and couldn't read anymore, or drive far away, and when my joints and spine deteriorated to such a degree that I couldn't sit for hours at a computer, or do a four hour touring shift, or climb steps to tour a house? Well, I discovered the Free Books Project and gave away all my books! I founded a small Seniors Group that met monthly at my local Seniors' Hall and that lasted for 7 years. We did 'show and tell' based projects such as a one page scrap booking project with an old family photo that we framed.

One cold snowy January Sunday morning about 6/7 years ago, I dropped in at the Woodbury Friends Meeting and I liked it so much I joined and religion became my next big interest. I have just listened to a great audio book called "Taking Religion Seriously." I volunteered to teach first day school there and that opened up a bunch of interests too.

Throughout all of this, my new found freedom gave me the time to develop my lifelong painting and art passions and I have been showing paintings in group shows at The Station (Eiland Art Center) in Merchantville, NJ. I have two paintings up there right now and tomorrow I am meeting there for lunch with an artist friend. She and I met at the Haddon Fortnightly annual show in March and we both have works in the Merchantville show.

In 2024, I was in seven group shows and that kind of burned me out, not for painting but for the rigors of framing, wiring, applying, dropping off and picking up for shows. This year I only did two group shows at The Station, my favorite venue.

What I have been doing lately though, is small postcard sized paintings, often in water color. I have a little pocket sized Windsor Newton water color set, and you just need a cup of water and some good small brushes. They are quick studies and I have become quite good at them. I can do a little beauty in about 2 or 3 hours and a couple in a day. Over my birthday week, I did half a dozen and gave them away (framed inexpensively with dollar store frames) as thank you noes to each of the people who took me out to lunch for my birthday. They are so small that they aren't a burdensome gift for people and those people can also re-gift them if they like. When a friend's cat died recently, I did a little 8x10 portrait painting of her cat for her and it gave her such solace that I have been thinking about doing little paintings of pets next to give away. But first, some landscapes to offer the people in my Woodbury Friends congregation for Christmas - there are only 6 or 8 of us who attend regularly so I could do 6 or 8 small landscapes to give away.

I can't hike anymore, or kayak. And I can't drive far away anymore as my eyesight deteriorates, or read. But I can still paint, and I listen to audio books!, and I can still write this blog - a big benefit for me as I love to write (compose and structure my thoughts) and this is a perfect venue. Also another friend introduced me to Art Journaling and I have slowly been adopting that as well. I learn a lot from this blog and writing it often inspires me to a new idea. This blog just now gave me the idea of the postcard sized paintings for friends of their pets. By the way, one year I saw a magnificent Art gallery show of 19th century painted postcard- size landscapes of famous travel destinations done to send to people back home from travellers abroad. It was before the time of printed postcards. They were beautiful and INSPIRING! Well, I hope you, too, are finding things to do to replace the things you can no longer do. "The world is so full of such wondeful things, I am sure we should be happy as Queens and Kings!"

Happy Trails, wrightj45@yahoo.com