Day Ninety Nine

I keep having these great conversations with different friends or relatives about the choices I'm making.  Some really find it hard to believe that I'm relishing leaving this wonderful home I live in.  Usually this conversation takes place with someone who has plenty of money and can't imagine not having all their nice things around them.  I try to explain it in a way that doesn't sound like I'm anti-stuff or anti-money.  There is truly no judgement here.  I only get to decide what feels right for me and have a long held respect for the fact that there are a lot of ways to be.  Let me be clear,  (Universe, are you listening?)  I am pro money.  Love the stuff.  Hope to always have enough of it.  And therein lies the difference of opinion, right?  What is enough?  When I embark on the Gypsy Tour it is increasingly looking like a possibility that I will do so without the capital I originally thought I'd have.  After all, the existing home sales numbers were the worst ever last month; worst since they began keeping records in 1968.  So I have choices; I can choose to wait the market out and not leave until I sell or I can sell at a ridiculously low price or I can not sell and leave anyway.  I'm hoping to sell with no problem because I have such a wonderful and unique home and property, but I'm prepared to accept the latter. I'd like to leave no matter what and just live off the income I'll have monthly even though it won't be much.  I can get a friend to rent my house and take care of things until the market turns around enough for me to sell.  It is all a matter of perspective and what you most value.  I've had this adventure in mind for so long and, as I've mentioned before, I'm a girl who likes to have a plan and I love this plan enough to make sacrifices.  It would actually mean being fairly broke on the road, which would be a pretty true test of my theory that if I stay with people who love me and create something positive for them, (a cob oven, a raised bed, a new butterfly garden, a piece of art, etc.) that they'll happily feed me, let me shower and we'll enjoy each other's company for a while and I'll move on to the next place and project, leaving a trail of happiness behind me.  


The word adventure reminds me, I watched a great documentary last night, 180° South, on the recommendation of a friend.  There was a line in it that I really liked, "The word adventure has gotten overused.  For me adventure is when everything goes wrong.  That's when the adventure starts."  There's a lot of truth to that; I know from experience.  Once we moved from Phoenix to Reno in a U-Haul towing a green horse trailer loaded to excess and a station wagon tagging along full of kids.  Seems like a simple enough task but things started going wrong and it did turn into an unbelievable adventure.  A story for another night maybe.  My childhood was filled with that sort of occurence; I'm blessed with (and have honed) great coping skills, I can handle what comes.  Anyway, a portion of the movie happens on Rapa Nui (aka Easter Island), one of the world's most isolated inhabited islands and a place often held up as an example of the dangers of overexploitation.  The population went from 30,000 down to 111 people.  Aldous Huxley said, "Men do not learn very much from the lessons of history.  And that is the most important of all the lessons of history."  They say that as the story of Rapa Nui goes, so goes the planet.  Let's hope not but just in case, I really want to go on the Gypsy Tour sooner rather than later.  :-)


These are the offerings for this day:


1.  A pair of cotton pajamas
2.  A pair of olive green denim shorts
3.  A turquoise blue tank top
4.  Cesar's Way by Cesar Millan
5.  Ask and it is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks

Tomorrow is day 100 and I thought I should maybe plan something splashy but since my sound effects effort fell flat (no comments on how cool and impressive it was and one daughter told me she "didn't get it") I'm waffling.  Guess we'll see....


Don Vardo Plans
Gypsy Tour Map