Susanna

* Walking. I like to walk about 5k each day along where the Merri Creek meets the Yarra.

* Grandchildren. If only I could have skipped the kids and gone straight to my grandchildren.

* Operating my web hosting and content creation business.

* Officiating at Funerals, Memorials and Life Celebrations

* Producing and presenting a weekly radio programme, Left after Breakfast, on 3CR Melbourne. 855 AM

* Co-ordinating Red Hats on the Yarra, a Red Hats Chapter for women 50+ who want to do more than just have fun.

* Writing books and email courses, running teleclasses and live workshops on aspects of the Divine Feminine using mythology as a guide to life changes and choices from a Jungian perspective.

* Speaking on menopause and midlife changes for health centres and community groups.

* Compiling a new book of my earlier and widely scattered stories on mythology. This will be Tales of the Goddess

A quick scan of those paragraphs shows that I really do just two things .. I talk and I write!

I’m a Funeral Celebrant.

The impetus for concentrating solely on the funerals was my own experience with attending appalling funerals, dreadfully done, with no thought whatsoever given to the wishes of the person for whom the service was being held.

The last straw was sitting through a funeral in a church for an old friend, a dedicated atheist and active opponent of all things religious. How he would have hated that.

I organise websites for people. Virtual P.A is the name.

I set them up, usually a content management system but occasionally a static HTML site, host and maintain them, manage clients’ newsletters, catalogues, selling of services online etc.

I enjoy this work. It’s a personally satisfying experience, I have come to know so much about my clients and their business, I feel myself a part of it. I am a part of it.

Many years back, when my brother started up his small import business, I spent 12 months in a tiny office with an even tinier storeroom behind. “Don’t you feel isolated?” my mother asked. She couldn’t understand why I liked it so much. I still like working on my own.

I also write content for various online and offline publications. This, of course, means many hours sitting on my own, happily tap-tapping on my keyboard and gazing into space. Now that the children have left I’m free to do just what I want to do.

There are many different views of Heaven, from stately halls to 50 miles of elbow room, but my vision is smaller. Heaven is sitting at my desk fingers clicking furiously, watched intently by the fat kookaburra on the fence. Grabbing some tuna and cheese and strolling the few steps to the Merri Creek to sit looking over the water and thanking what gods may be for notebooks and wireless. Paradise.