Transitions
This been a week of moving in which our usual transition routine occurred. One might presume that with our transient lifestyle we are used to packing our bags and moving. True, we are used to packing our bags and moving, yet there is always an emotional swing during the process. Usually I misquote Ron Burgundy (Will Ferris from the movie Anchor Man) to Chris more times than seems humanly possible. I will have said, “I’m a roller coaster of emotions,” to which Chris responds, “It’s a glass case of emotions,” to which I then wail, “I don’t care, I feel like that too and I’m still a roller coaster of emotions.” Sniff. Sniff. Moving from one house to the next, one country to another, one campground to another, I almost always feel a longing to stay where I am conflicting with the excitement to move to my next destination.
Preparing to move in our smallest car yet, I moped around for about five days as I attempted to put my sister’s house back to the way it was before we arrived. (I have since been informed that we failed and she has been cleaning and reorganizing ever since.) Taking down my inspirational quotes from the wall, deciding which photography book to pack since I would only have room for one and taking what would be my last picture of Max, the cutest cocker spaniel in the world sent the ‘do not want to leave’ emotions into overdrive. I’d go into the next room to pack clothes for our new Inn Keeping job with Vermont State Parks. I carefully folded my brand new apron so it will look crisp and neat when I pull it out to wear it, stuffed away my well worn, paint stained Carhatts that I know I will be wearing as I ride around on a John Deer tractor cutting the grass and secured my favourite butterfly hairpin that I imagine wearing to greet guests. Now my ‘excited to leave feelings’ have risen and watch out world, here I come, till I go back into the other room.
On the surface, life would be much easier if I just stayed where I was. Never mind all this moving, the time it takes or the emotional toll. Yet, life wouldn’t be any easier because deep down I would know I was not meeting my calling and I wouldn’t be riding this roller coaster of life. I would be standing on the sidelines watching life go by while everyone else was experiencing the ride. For me, traveling is my chosen path in life. As sad as I feel to leave a place and excited to move somewhere new, these opposing sides of emotion create my drive and I don’t veer away from it. I think sometimes society convinces people to maintain a fear of feeling emotion as it means we are living this life and thus responsible for our decisions. Through the act of travel I feel more alive as I meet people, learn new skills, do things and contribute back to the world in ways I could have never imagined. Even if this vagabond lifestyle isn’t for you, are you actively pursuing what is your chosen life style? Have you jumped onto your roller coaster, taken an active role in the ride of your life, or are you standing in line waiting for just the right time to take your turn?
Here’s a few snippets of life from the past couple of months of our roller coaster.
We definitely had the most recycling on the street. I tried to get a photo of the entire street, but take my word for it, nobody had more recycling than us.
We collected recycling wherever we went. That lady is looking to the right because there may have been a piece of paper blowing by and that was not happening on her watch. Also, you can see in the back corner of the van a clothes drying rack bringing our grand total to three. Often times Paul would go looking for his clothes that he presumed were in the dryer. After getting out of the shower and opening the dryer door to retrieve clean clothes I could hear a huge “Ugh” from inside the bathroom. Eventually I was banned from hanging Paul’s clothes up to dry.
Sign in a local cemetery speaking a simple truth.
Oh this is a beautiful site. Starting from the left, a blender, coffee maker, espresso maker (this machine I love and dream of at night, counting the days till I invest in a cafe quality machine), big water container, and another coffee maker which served solely to make hot water for tea.
These are the base elements of my dream kitchen counter.
I have made a smoothie almost every single day since not living in the van.
How does life get any better than this?
Oh – except to have a little dog named Max who will let you do anything to him.
Chris was looking to change his style for awhile but it didn’t fit him.
Take a good look at Chris’s smiling face – that was his only smile for the evening. Chris could have been home, sitting in a recliner watching sports and instead Laura and I convinced him it would be much more fun to get out and explore our community with a game of bingo. Our gift of singing can be quite persuasive to influence anyone to do whatever it takes to make us stop, hence Chris joined us for for his first and last game of bingo.
You could have added our ages together and we still would have been the youngest people there. You can see from this woman’s set up, this was a very serious bingo hall. My favourite piece is the portable fan.
We did win money. This did not change Chris’s mind that he would not be joining us again.
Written in the rules – seriously – Laura gave us rules to follow which included regular bathing as she kindly reminded us we were not living in a van with just the two of us and as such we were required to bath daily. There were four people living in the house and some how this was usually the minimum amount of bottles in the bathroom. None of us ever seemed to know how this happened as proportionately we each had 3.25 bottles per person of product.
This week if you find you have been standing in line for too long, there will never be ‘just the right time’ to jump into your life. That time is today. To help all of us remember we have our intuition speaking to us, if we will listen, I leave you with these final words from a wise pig,
“Little ideas that tickle and nag and refuse to go away, should not be ignored, for in them lie the seeds of destiny.”
-from the movie Babe
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A nice “moving” story with sage advice from both you and the pig…
That is one pig I regularly take advice from. 🙂
Now after 3 weeks of reorganizing and going through everything from inside out, I sit here in a clean house with my little dog on one side of me on the couch and then my foster kitty on the other side wishing I had some one else here to see how cute they are when they sleep.
Oh I do miss Max and Orange Kitty. Luckily my unnatural whims to take hundreds of pictures of Max is serving me well right now.
I love the feeling of getting up and moving. It really helps me not accumulate too many belongings. But, Eddie and I have been in the same house now for 2 years! Yikes!… we are doing our best to get out and travel as much as possible and to not get too comfortable in Reno. We will surely move again soon…
I loooooved following your updates of your most recent trip in Asia, and I was definitely very jealous reading about them from a chair.