The Home Again Update

After two solid weeks of our Purge Parasitis medication, we are beginning to feel better and ready to digest more — literally and figuratively.

We both have mixed feelings about being back in Canada. I am very happy to see and spend times with our families, our Itty cat and our friends. I am not so happy to be here in Southern Ontario. Both Jenn and I feel claustrophobic. Our ocean views, our mountain tops and the expansive never ending terrains have disappeared leaving us feeling sludgy—uninspired and unmotivated.

After traveling to so many beautiful places, you begin to realize how much setting affects your life story. It is important to put yourself in a place that is conducive to bringing out your best self. Along the north west coast of California, in the lakes and mountains of Patagonia, Tasmania’s Tasman Peninsula or the Marlborough Sounds of South Island New Zealand, I felt most at home, most content. The land’s energy, the vistas and the people brought out my best. We are in love with vast water, with rocky shorelines and moss covered rain forests. With that around us, everything is possible.

I was talking with my friend Torin the other day about the nature of travel. He feels it should be mandatory that every eighteen year old take a year off from their schooling and travel the world. “When you’re eighteen, you think you know everything and after traveling for a bit, you quickly realize you don’t. There’s so much more to learn.”

I added that it should also be mandatory when you’re 40 to take a year off and travel. “Because at that point, you have so much to unlearn.”

That was a theme for us on this journey. There was plenty of learning, but underneath we were unlearning much of the stuff we’d accumulated, in my case, over the past twenty years. There is something about giving up your house, packing up all your belongings into boxes and hitting the road for a long stretch of time with a bag, passport and a travel points credit card that makes you rethink just what is truly important.

What is important in life. And what is important in you.

I feel I found myself again during this trip, rediscovered who I am and while doing so, threw off a lot of accumulated baggage. I am grateful for that opportunity. Our trip reminded us how fun, how liberating and FULL life can be. It gave us the conviction to say, ‘No compromises. From here on in, we’re going for that — meaningful interactions and experiences. Learning and growth. Being part of the world and making a conscious effort to contribute to its improvement.

It reminded us that life does not fall apart if you stop doing something and move on to something else. Transition is possible. You can switch up everything and head out in a different direction

Never fear. Life goes on just fine.

It reminded us how little we require to live. We were at our most happy and content in our little camper, motoring about New Zealand. Good organic food. A campsite to spend the night. Diesel every third day and a promising bottle of wine and book. We needed little else. The small amount of clothes we had in our bags were absolutely adequate.

It also reminded me how much I love and like Jenn and how fortunate I am to have her as my partner. We spent pretty much the entire five and half months together and never once did it cross my mind that some alone time was needed (however, driving along the Oregon coast got a bit dicey once those parasites took hold...) Not only did I rediscover myself, but we rediscovered each other and the formidable team we are together.

Traveling also reminded us of the sheer number of stories and experiences in the world. We conversed with so many people during our trip with the explicit intention to collect tales from as many folk as possible about the different directions life takes. We were pleasantly surprised at how easily we made new friends and were reminded time and time again of the basic goodness and generosity of people.

We were hoping that along the way that we’d uncover a new opportunity, that maybe a sense of what comes next in our life would emerge — a job or merely somewhere to put our energies to work. That never came, except for a very kind offer to house sit in Fiji which we may still follow up on. We are working now on manifesting a new plan with the hopes that opportunities will indeed bubble forth (... so... if you have any great ideas or connections please do consider sharing!).

Traveling creates a steady flow of daily events and people for you to discover and explore. It is constant incoming data to sift through and find meaning. I miss that already. You lose that stream when you stop and hole up somewhere. Already, the urge to get back on the road is there for both of us. There is still unfinished business, more ground clearing for another shift as we continue to re-imagine and restructure our lives.