The Vision

The dream for this blog,To a Life Well Occupied, is that it becomes a trusted friend, a part of your daily routine, and a place where everyday people gather to share and understand what impacts our everyday living. We seek to create spaces and places where we can develop habits that allow us to truly listen and learn as we look out for each other, for ourselves, and for the whole. 

What We Are and What We Are Not

This blog is not a substitute for medical advice, nor is it intended to be medical advice.  It may inform the types of things you wish to talk about with members of your health and well-being teams or communities. Here, we embrace that there is often as much to unlearn as there is to learn.

We also commit to being our authentic selves, while learning together how to best provide content and spaces to grow. As the originator of this blog, I can tell you I love to consider the big picture and then zoom into the details. Some of you will love that deep dive, and others may be overwhelmed by it.

This won’t be done perfectly, but the goal is to keep getting better at providing you with what is affectionately known in my home as the K and T versions. Option K (me) is ”Give me the whole play-by-play, please, the more context the better.” Option T (my spouse) is “Please tell this to me in the shortest, most concise way possible.” I’ve learned to speak both K and T, but am not yet fully fluent in the latter. For those who speak T, you can help by letting me know what methods work best for you (i.e., headings, directing you to short versions, bolding, forewarning you that this content may best be consumed as one would at a “grazing table,” etc.)  T readers one other option you may like-- fast forward any videos to key sections which will be listed in the comments below them. No matter which kind of content consumer you are, I’ll be doing my best to make this content consumable for you.

The 7 Categories of the Blog 

Monthly Themes
Unlearning
Words to Know and Grow
Rhythms of Everyday Living
Being and Rest as Occupations
Lives Well Occupied: Lessons from Near and Far
Reflections

You’ll notice there are enough categories of the blog to integrate one category a day into a daily routine. There is also a monthly theme to help guide your focus. You can read posts in any order you choose, and if you would like to engage in conversation about these topics feel free to comment on the blog and/or on social media or reach out through our Connect page. This blog is intended to acknowledge and support the fact we are co-creating lives well occupied. Your ideas, feedback, and questions are essential to guiding the content and methods of interaction we use and will help create the conditions to make participating in the blog conversations better for all.

Context and Definitions for Shared Understanding as You Begin Interaction with the Blog

Q. What does “well occupied” mean? 

A: There is no one-size-fits-all answer, and together we will work to learn more about each other so we can identify what that means for each of us.You may know what being “well occupied” is when you feel it, and equally important, you may recognize what it feels like or looks like when you or someone you care about is not well occupied. Not only will we talk about what we do that contributes to living a life well occupied; we’ll also learn about how timing, purposefulness, ways of being, ways of doing, paths to becoming, and whom we choose to spend time with affect how well occupied our lives are. We will also recognize and act on the opportunities, small and large, to aid each other in doing so as well. 

Q: How do we become well occupied and stay that way? 

A: The journey to a life well occupied is just that: it’s a journey, not a destination. It is also the reason the blog is titled To a Life Well Occupied, to honor the process. When we acknowledge and appreciate the various seasons of our lives, we can make choices that work best at that time. As you consider what this means for you, you may find figuring out what you don’t want to occupy your life may be just as beneficial as determining what you do want to do to occupy your life. The invitation to pursue a life well occupied is offered to anyone who feels like they aren’t exactly sure what to do next but they do know they want to live and create conditions for lives well occupied. 

Redefining Citizenship

If you read this blog regularly, I would prefer you not think of yourself simply as a “follower” of the blog. Another title I would invite you to consider for yourself is citizen. 

Citizen, as defined by Peter Block is the definition we will use in this blog. A citizen is “one who is willing to be accountable for and committed to the well-being of the whole.” 

How does he define the whole? A whole can be “a city block, a workplace, a community, a nation, and/or the earth.” By this definition we can see we are part of many groups and wholes, which ultimately fit into and impact one another. 

The definition doesn’t stop there, though; it also describes the action a citizen will take. A citizen is “one who produces the future, does not wait, beg, or dream for the future.” 

You will notice plenty of opportunities throughout the blog to expand your understanding of your everyday living experiences, including expanding or even unlearning the traditional definitions of some common terms.  

Stepping Into Our Role as Citizens: Creating Habits, Rhythms and Routines to Support and Nourish Lives Well Occupied

Have you ever paused to account for what living beings contribute to society to make everyday living possible? In the book Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer speaks of maple trees as citizens. 

What can I learn from the maple trees in order to be a better citizen? First, I’ll look at their commitment to be and rest. Without it, they cannot fully contribute to the whole. They stand firm in their commitment to be, according to the seasons. They don’t try to produce sap in the summer (or even produce sap if the conditions, such as temperature, are not right for that to happen). You can put it on your calendar, if you wish, for when to expect sap, but when it is time to tap the trees, the conditions determine when the sap is ready. Calendar time is a human construct; maple trees instead embrace their interconnectedness and follow the cues of their surroundings. For humans, this means learning to follow the cues of nature as well and accepting the natural flow.                     

Robin Wall Kimmerer reminds us how maple trees experience and express rhythms of everyday living while being exemplary citizens. They provide air and water purification services around the clock. They take carbon from the atmosphere and store it away. In addition, they provide shade, wood, homes and protection for animals, sap for maple syrup, and beauty, just to name a few things.

The redefinition of citizen, and the examples provided by the maple tree allow us to consider the various ways in which we reset, rest and be, and establish rhythms of everyday living.  As you can see, how you apply the content is up to you--there is no correct way, just your way. You are encouraged to try on new perspectives, decide what fits, and leave the rest. Wherever you are, the goal is to create a daily rhythm that tells your body it is safe to learn and unlearn here--and it may just make each of us better citizens.

Calling the Circle

The categories of the blog are intended to provide you with a comprehensive approach to finding the answers and actions we need so our actions can speak as non-verbal communication for what we say we believe in. In time, our actions will speak louder than words in the best of ways. As an occupational therapist (OTs are experts in the art and science of everyday living) and the caller of this online circle, I commit to standing fully in my role as a citizen of my neighborhood, city, nation, and world. 

By writing this to you, I commit to supporting and nurturing the whole as fully and consistently as the maple tree does. 

To all of you, this is an invitation to notice and take action as fellow citizens--to ask questions that help us in our commitment to the whole. It will not be an easy road, but it is a conscious path, and one that allows for you to bring your full humanity to daily living. In short, what I’m saying is it’s a path worth choosing.

Please join us as often as you wish. I look forward to learning and unlearning with you!

To a life well occupied,

Kary 

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Block, P., (2018) Community: The Structure of Belonging. Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Kimmerer, R.W. ( 2013) Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions