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In pursuit of purpose and happiness with a green retirement role

In pursuit of purpose and happiness with a green retirement role

“Now to find something to do that made me happy about in retirement is not as easy as it sounds. It took me about half of my 18 years of retirement life to finally reach the goal.”

Mr.Hur was born near Kuala Kangsar, in a small village by the Perak River in Malaysia and received early education near the Perak state capital Ipoh. With the grant of a scholarship, Mr.Hur had the privilege to study for the degrees of agriculture and education in Canadian universities.  Later in between work on part-time basis, he obtained MBA from National University of Malaysia and qualified himself as a chartered accountant through self-study.

Before retirement, Mr. Hur ever worked in the sector of education, accounting and finance to management and consultancy in Malaysia, Brunei, China and USA for 38 years. Mr. Hur and his wife raised 3 children who live in different countries.

In search of purposeful life after retirement

Long before retirement at 63, Mr. Hur had realized the need of social interaction to active ageing. Convinced of that, Mr.Hur sought meaningful, rewarding and fulfilling work or activities to enrich retired life, which took about half of his18 years of retirement life to reach the goal. One of the assignments that he still often thought fondly of were lecturing at the Open University, giving continuous professional development (CPD) lectures at the Malaysian Institute of Accountants, and writing Howard University styled accounting case studies for use in Malaysian universities. It exactly corresponded to lifelong learning concept in the third age. However, he found himself unwilling to continue with the organizer whose ultimate purpose diverged with his.

His golden era of retirement began about 10 years ago when he moved here to spend more time with his grandchildren. Mr. Hur was introduced to be the volunteer gardener of the roof top garden in a local garden hospital. Of note, although Mr. Hur didn’t reveal its name at beginning, our audience who went to this hospital made a good guess. 

 

Golden times with warm-hearted volunteers

Mr. Hur highly praises volunteer gardeners at the rooftop garden.  The majority of around 20 volunteers are seniors or retirees while only about half would turn up at any time. Those present understand why the rest are not there, either going for medical appointment, feeling unwell or caring for grandchildren, common issues seniors will meet in later life.

At the organizational level, there are volunteer coordinators who are in supporting role than supervisory. When it comes to task assignments, everyone seems to fall into proper places without formal organization or hierarchy. Some took special interest in growing vegetables or herbs while others are interested in caring of fruit trees, or in the selling of produce of the garden. In this regard, some has turned to be group leaders over time while no election or appointment was made. The rest of the volunteers just affiliates themselves to the group they liked. It is so natural and smooth.

Horticulture Therapy and 250 Sessions

In 2012, Mr. Hur stayed in New York City for one year. When he visited the NY Botanical Garden one day, he noticed that they run a certificate course in horticulture therapy (HT). In previous training in agriculture, he was taught to use plant to fill people’s stomach, whereas horticulture therapy promised that plant can be used to sooth people’s mind as well, and happily in the process helped them heal at a faster rate if they are unwell. He signed up for the course without hesitation.

Mr. Hur put new skill into practice after returning to the rooftop garden. Since then, he has used the rooftop garden as a base to produce the plantlets, and also got financing support from the ‘green fund’ which is raised from the sale of garden produce to procure materials such as pots, garden tools and soil. He conducted two 1-hour sessions in the afternoon per week, in addition to gardening work in the morning. Up until they had to stop due to Covid-19 restriction in January 2020, over 250 sessions were carried out by these volunteer gardeners who brought gardening activity into the wards to share the joy with a total of more than 1500 patients in the hospital over 4 years.

Mr. Hur is much busier than before, but he is happier, more satisfied with the fulfilling life he has led. 

During this webinar, Mr.Hur shares a herbal tea recipe and a soup recipe.

Oyster drink

Benefits[1]

Relieve body heatiness. Treat fever, cough and bronchitis

Herbal tea making:  

Boiling leaves and make into purple-coloured herbal tea

 

[1]https://www.nparks.gov.sg/florafaunaweb/flora/2/5/2524

 

Winter melon and astragalus soup

Benefits:

Strength the spleen and increase qi.

Diuretic and reduce weight.

Recipe:

1. Chicken breast meat 200g.

2. Codonopsis 6g. astragalus 6g.

3. Winter melon 200g.

4. Water suitable amount.

5. Salt to taste.

For more information about this webinar, please watch the video below.

Xiao Xiao Duan

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