Looking Local: Christine Roberts — A Life Rooted in Purpose

For Christine Roberts, retirement was never meant to be an ending. It was an invitation to reconsider what might come next.

After a career as an elementary school teacher and years spent raising three sons, Christine entered retirement with a desire to slow down, explore long-abandoned interests and settle into a new home and a new rhythm of life. But, as she discovered, stepping away from a career does not necessarily mean stepping away from purpose.

“Retirement is an evolution and shouldn’t be rushed. It’s also an opportunity for reinvention.”

Her own reinvention began quietly.

The first few years of retirement were relatively peaceful as she adjusted to her new surroundings. She indulged in crafts and painting, revisited hobbies that had been set aside during her working years and enjoyed the luxury of a slower pace.

Eventually, though, the desire to contribute began to call.

Christine started with what was familiar, connecting with other retired teachers through the South Bruce branch of the Retired Women Teachers of Ontario. She served as secretary for several years and continues to provide communication support.

Then came the Ripley and District Horticultural Society, where a warm welcome led to a deeper involvement. Christine served as secretary and is now vice-president.

When mobility issues prompted her to look for low-impact exercise, she discovered the VON SMART fitness program in Ripley. She joined the class and eventually became a volunteer leader—what she describes as a true “win-win,” allowing her to give back while receiving the benefits of regular exercise.

And then there was nature.

During the busy years of working and raising their three sons, Christine and her husband never had as much time as they would have liked to hike, explore and simply immerse themselves in the natural world. Retirement created that space.

They found their way to the Huron Bruce Nature Club, where Christine joined the board in 2015, took over communications in 2016 and eventually served as president for four years.

With each new connection, Christine found herself becoming more deeply woven into the community.

She reflects that her involvement in these organizations has given her a much richer understanding of the people, issues and values that shape the area.

“Volunteering has supercharged my integration in the community.”

Learning to Garden with Purpose. Christine has been gardening since 1990. For decades, she loved the physicality of gardening and the creative challenge of building beautiful outdoor spaces.

But in 2020, something shifted.

After reading Douglas Tallamy’s Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard, Christine began looking at her garden through an entirely different lens.

Until then, she had followed a familiar gardening tradition, filling her beds with the exotic, non-native plants readily available through ornamental gardens and garden centres. She had not realized that some of those choices could provide little food or habitat for wildlife—or that her efforts to create a beautiful garden might unintentionally be contributing to a less hospitable environment.

The realization was transformative.

Over the next four or five years, Christine and her husband gradually removed many of their non-native shrubs and perennials and replaced them with native species.

She was no longer simply gardening. She was gardening with purpose.

Today, when Christine walks through her property, she notices something she once overlooked—the constant movement and interaction between plants, insects, birds and other wildlife.

Her garden has become less like a collection of plants and more a living, interconnected community. “I am humbled to be a steward of that life,” she says.

Perhaps one of the greatest rewards has been sharing this perspective with her grandchildren. Introducing them to the natural world through young, wondering eyes has given gardening another dimension.

“Explaining the importance of nurturing and respecting nature feels like a sacred duty.”

From Her Backyard to the Community. Christine’s passion for native plants has grown well beyond the boundaries of her own property.

Her monthly sustainable gardening column, NIMBY—Nature In My Back Yard, appears on the Kincardine Record’s news website as part of her volunteer work with the David Suzuki Foundation Butterflyway Program.

As a Butterflyway Ranger, Christine encourages neighbours and community members to support biodiversity by incorporating native plants into their gardens and establishing pollinator gardens.

Since 2023, she has made numerous presentations and, together with her husband, has created and helped maintain more than a dozen butterfly gardens throughout Huron-Kinloss and Kincardine. They also collect and donate seeds to the public library’s seed library.

Christine is quick to point out that you don’t need to be a gardening expert to make a difference.

The Butterflyway Rangers bring their own talents and strengths to the work. For Christine, writing and communication became her contribution—and a way to reach people beyond those she might meet in a garden.

Embracing a Little Mess

If Christine could inspire one small change in the people of Huron-Bruce, it would be to begin by looking more closely at what is already growing in their own backyards.

She encourages people to take an inventory of their plants, identify invasive or non-native species and, where possible, replace them with native plants.

It doesn’t have to happen all at once.

“It might be a quick refresh, or it might take time and need to be done in phases,” she says. “Regardless, the benefits to the environment will be profound and almost immediate.”

But her message is ultimately about much more than gardening.

Christine wants us to understand that everything in nature is connected. Everything has a purpose. And what we do to nature, we ultimately do to ourselves.

That philosophy extends even to the creatures we might instinctively wish away.

The spider in the doorway. The skunk digging in the lawn. The garter snake that startles you. The wasp building a nest in the garden shed.

Christine suggests we reconsider our relationship with these less-loved members of the natural world.

“There’s no malicious intent; they’re just trying to survive the same as we all are.”

She encourages us to move away from the postcard-perfect lawn and garden and make room for a little messiness—a patch of native plants, a corner of the yard where leaves are allowed to gather, a brush pile left intentionally undisturbed.

“When we embrace the mess of nature, we also embrace life.”

There is an interesting parallel between Christine’s approach to gardening and her approach to retirement.

Neither is about perfection.

Both are about allowing room for change, discovery and unexpected growth.

Christine admits that she sometimes feels overwhelmed by her many volunteer commitments and is learning to say “no” more often. Yet she also knows that as long as she has something meaningful to contribute to and is physically able, she wants to continue.

There are still books waiting to be read. Paintings waiting to be painted. Ideas waiting to take root.

And perhaps that is what makes Christine’s story so compelling. She has not simply filled her retirement with activities. She has cultivated a life of purpose—one rooted in community, curiosity, service and an ever-deepening relationship with the natural world.

Her garden continues to change around her. New plants take root. Wildlife arrives. Old ideas make way for new ones and Christine continues to grow alongside it all.