I agree completely with this!
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In my darkest of times were I think all is lost. My thoughts turn from that precipice of self destruction and I remember the what the Dali Lama said,
āThis is my simple religion. There is no need for temples. There is no need for philosophy. Your own heart is your temple. Let you philosophy be kindness.ā
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I sometimes struggle with rectifying my work life with my personal life.
My position is kind of unique, but the short version of it is I take care of laboratory equipment for a cluster of labs in a research hospital. Those labs do everything from research to cell manipulation for very ill patients from all over the country to viral vector production for pharmaceutical companies. Iād be lying if I said I understood all of the high-caliber science involved, but I know enough to know that what we can do with gene therapy would have been considered a miracle only decades ago. Itās really an amazing thing to be a part of and I get some satisfaction out of the job.
But medical science isnāt very green. It consumes a lot of energy and produces a lot of waste. I think I try to spend so much time around plants because I spend so much time in an incredibly sterile laboratory environment. I live close enough to work that I can take a shuttle that they provide for employees, and I donāt own a car or need to. So I guess thereās that.
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Perhaps not entirely green @the_urban_hermit as you mentioned, but certainly helpful to alleviate suffering. That seems to be helpful for many!
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I have always struggled in how to answer, āSo, what do you do?ā My work has never lent itself to a simple answer like plumber, teacher, or lawyer (not that any of them are simple by any means), in part because I do not recall ever having only one job. As a result, I tend to reply, āI work in Educationā or āI am an Educational Consultantā
My full-time work is as an institutional researcher in a small, rural community college, where I do all of the college reporting and data crunching. I also lead the re-accreditation effort and also the strategic planning efforts, so in ways have my hand in everything we do.
Part-time is as a professor (I teach research in a management and systems graduate program), an educational consultant (I am leading a qualitative research project at a global nonprofit and also lead Wikipedia efforts at another large health NGO) while also coach students on how to study and write their dissertations / theses.
All told, my work is very related to my Druidry, as all of it involves implementing or assessing how knowledge is gained and used to help make the world a better, safer, more sustainable, and more equitable place.
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Iām currently focusing on my new career in ministry as a Druid and independent contractor. Iām already retired from my career in multiple service for nearly 20 years. At 38 years old, Iāve already been there and done that. Spent my time as an Army Paratrooper with 4 combat deployments in Iraq for nearly 7 years. Iāve spent the next 7 years combined as Correctional Officer and Process Server. Thatās until I later went to become a Wildland Firefighter Hotshots. And when I wasnāt on the fire season, I was a Strike Team Leader and Sawyer for Disaster Response agency with over 30 deployments nationwide. Iām currently a CERT member to keep my skills up. My career is aligned with my Druid path as I find myself in between order and chaos while protecting both human and animal life, including conservation. Iāve been ordained back in 2015, but didnāt have much time to put it into practice. Now Iām no longer at the frontlines, I can now focus on meeting the criteria as a Druid Priest (BattleMage 
).
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For those of you who havenāt read my āAbout meā on my profile, I served in the Canadian Army as a communication information system specialist. I had some cool experiences like running part of the communication network for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Like some of you, from what I read here, struggled with the alignment of my spiritual needs and the work I did. Which ultimately lead to my retiring from active duty to explore spiritually.
This lead to me driving and hitchhiking across Canada and the USA. I spent a few months with an older brother I didnāt know I had prior to 2015 and we grew close. I was homeless from July 2018 until September 2019, that was a packed year of really hard lessons for myself. Fortunately I was able to get some help for the PTSD I developed from my tour overseas.
Iāve been in therapy weekly since November 2019, and Remembrance Day of 2019 was the last day I had a drop of alcohol too. Itās been a hard road of recovery, and deeply rewarding in terms of lessons learned.
Now Iāve found this community of nature loving, creative and loving people. I feel more balanced and I havenāt actually started my studies yet, looks like I do have an email from @RocasCearcall giving me the green light to start! Wooh! Thank you and I appreciate the feedback too.
Lately Iāve been researching different new career paths to explore, animation and game design were strong contenders for a while. However they both have a key component that I didnāt like about many of my other jobs, being trapped behind a desk inside somewhere. Iāve just started researching about various types of metal smithing where I feel I would enjoy that work much more and will also let me couple my woodworking stills into some metal work too.
To anyone who blacksmiths and/or gold/silver smiths, what would you recommend as a good starting project to learn the basics of the respective smithing?
I also wanted to express my gratitude to this community for making me feel welcome so far, and getting to see all this artwork and creative projects is just inspiring on so many levels! Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
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That is wonderful for you explore the country. Perhaps in your down time and out of job life there is a possibility to develop your Druid practice so that even if the position doesnāt fill you up with āecologyā they it can not feel challenging to harmonize the outside work
Life . They interact. Vs challenge each other .
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Where is there a possibility to utilize green therapy to change the energy consumed by gene therapy?
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@Dakota hey Dakota,
You and I are in similar boats regarding The gaming and computer paths. I am a designer of clothes and while it sounds like a lah di da profession- it / or me really hasnāt fulfilled my wildest passions and expectations. Plus itās more about being behind a computer that is co-writing the art of clothing/ making clothing.
Thus, I am Exploring other avenues- such as jewelry design , ux design , and other design options which basically sit me in front of a computer and or inside a controlled space. :-/
The āstabilityā of being a comfortable environment these types of positions are alright, income varies , job security varies , demand varies. Consumption of materials is unbelievable. So the factors on staying in these careers is unclear to me.
Through the Sphere of protection morning meditation I have the opportunity to explore when and why I was passionate about something - this comes up in My Southern/ fire element. The need and desire for more - best- is unrelenting.
Anyhow, I have started therapy to explore these routes and if I land on dream career- that will be wonderful. Most importantly, I am working on being satiated with the possibility of choice that eases my heart, mind, and spirt.
Take care,
Stephen
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Hi, @Dakota! Offering unsolicited advice here, but I wonder if work in one of Canadaās land or wildlife management agencies might be a good fit for you? Iām in the US, so Iām not sure what the counterparts are in Canada, but for us here there are a number of positions at the state and federal level that would be appropriate for an entry level person in our land management agencies and to which veterans preference applies - which means veterans go to the top of the list of candidates with similar qualifications. Here, there are many types of positions that are either mostly āin the fieldā (out on the land) or have a certain amount of work in the field as part of the regular duties. I did a quick search and it seems there is some version of veteranās preference in CA, but I wasnāt really sure if it applied only to federal agencies or also provincial ones. Best of luck to you on your next phase of your career journey!
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I sit at a desk on a computer all day, but it faces a window and I frequently look at the trees across the street, birds and bugs that fly by, cloud shapes, etc. Sometimes I walk around the block on break. Maybe for my retirement job Iāll work in a nursery lol but for now thatās the best I can do to connect with nature during the day.
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I am a rural public librarian in the US for career. It aligns with my druid path by letting me work in a building dedicated to knowledge, reduce negative impacts of the need to make so much stuff by helping people share items with each other, and it allows me to live in a very rural area. I struggle with being indoors so much and with the vast majority of my time at work being spent on admin tasks that come with operating a public entity - financial reports and audits, staffing, contracting, compliance with the various laws and requirements (public meetings and records, local budget law, consumer privacy protection, etc.). Iām not trying to say these laws/requirements are not important or necessary, just that I personally am unhappy with spending so much of my work time demonstrating compliance with them.
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Amy, partly I envy you, because for years I thought about becoming a librarian. But the admin tasks you name are (at least part of) the reason I never did it. Itās really a management job, and I wasnāt cut out for that. But libraries are wonderful.
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You have one of the best and peaceful career field as a librarian. One of those career fields thatās extremely hard to find openings. All respect.
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Thanks for the respect @clark.stinson! You are right, it is a great career field and it is often hard to find openings, especially in more populated areas. I certainly feel it is the best career field for me! I do want to push back a little on the idea of the field as āpeaceful,ā though, if I may. I am sure your comment was casual and you meant nothing at all by it, it just hit on a stereotype that I find problematic in a lot of ways - a romanticization of libraries and library work as only peaceful and pleasurable.
Itās true, in general, libraries have a quieter and more peaceful atmosphere than amusement parks, for example. Public libraries are also one of the last public places where all are welcome with no admission fee required. Iām trying to avoid politics here, but the fact is that smaller government results in fewer services, and as social safety nets are reduced, it leaves those of us with some kind of funding to fill more and more roles that our agencies are perhaps not designed to fill or fill well, and certainly not with extra funding being attached to help fill those roles. Generally, public libraries and first responders are both being asked to (or in some cases volunteering to) fill roles we have not historically filled and may or my not have appropriate training to fulfill.
This means that all public libraries, and especially urban public libraries, are often filling roles that combine some elements of senior centers/after school programs/social work/day warming centers with intersections with mental health crisis and substance abuse crisis in addition to their traditional library work. As one example, many public libraries now have Narcan/Naloxone and staff trained to use it to prevent death from opiate overdose. As another, library staff on-boarding training generally includes how to appropriately wake a sleeping adult in such a manner as to remain both respectful and physically safe if the patron comes up swinging (because trauma). This is valuable work, but it is not always peaceful work.
Last week I had a library patron, someone I know to have a long history of mental health issues and the self-medication behaviors that lead to substance abuse struggles and who is in a high degree of pain from a recent injury, curse me out at a very high volume repeatedly and vociferously when I tried to explain the reason behind something that would ordinarily not have bothered him at all. It was done with such heat that I made sure I was on the phone with my partner as I was leaving the building alone later that night, just in case. This doesnāt happen often in my small town library, but it does happen from time to time. It happens more frequently to library staff the more densely packed the population.
This is all to say that behind the peaceful atmosphere is the understanding that things could escalate quickly at any moment and we have to be ready for that, too. And while the job certainly has pleasures, it also has its own struggles and areas of friction, too. So next time youāre in your local library send a little peace towards your library staff if you can. Chances are they would welcome it.
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Thanks Amy. It was casual when Iāve spoken about being a librarian. I usually find this kind of work youāll hardly ever encounter on any site looking for new hire. And majority of employees Iāve personally encountered in a library, tend to have work there for 30+ years on an average. Next to it would be a postal worker. Those two career fields I had my eyes set on after leaving service. I understand why finding a librarian line of work is like finding a needle in a haystack. Itās quite, less stress, set hours without ever have to dread overtime, which leaves you respectable amount of time to enjoy your personal life.
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You are quite right in that there is often good longevity with library staff and frequently not many jobs even open, especially if you are tied to a specific geography. Iāve seen libraries larger than mine in my state go months with no open positions available. And the schedule is often set and you are rarely asked to work overtime. Thatās one of the things that also attracted me to the field, and does provide a lot more work/life balance.
Iām curious if when you leave the service if anyone spends any time helping you navigate post-service employment? In the US, there are a wealth of job opportunities in local, state, and federal employment that would be regular schedule and no overtime and to which veteransā preference applies, but you have to know which systems to use to even find open positions and apply (and these are often klunky and laborious to use compared to something like Indeed or Ziprecruiter). Do service members receive any help or advice on this when discharging? (Sorry if Iām mangling terminology here. I am clearly not from a military family!)
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I have found that my Druidry has definitely informed my choice of career path - I recently submitted (the majority of) my applications to grad school! I will be studying geography, especially political ecology. I believe that I will be able to bring a druidic sensibility to my studies, even if it would be seen as unprofessional to come outright and say it.
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That sounds fun. I can understand the connection.
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