An Adventure of a Lifetime
There is a saying, “When a door closes, a window opens.” Or even when a chapter closes, a new one begins. Life is full of new beginnings that can bring us meaning and purpose, a new way to live, perchance, something new to discover about ourselves, or a new flower just blooming its petals, showing the world, “I am here and ready!” So goes us for an adventure of a lifetime…
I remember seeing shadows flowing on the sidewalk, onto the driveway, moving slowly, stopping, then moving again. A dresser I painstakingly, but with love, distressed as I watched it go down the street from our driveway, ready to be a delight in its new home.
“I will buy this table for $5.00.” “How much for the chair?” “I might come back later.”
And so, it went, the birds came out to sing their morning songs until the bright orange orb in the sky was almost overhead. I looked up in the brightness of the large blue sky hovering above me, and asked myself, was this right, a yard sale, selling my memories? Why is my heart so sad, saying goodbye to memories, ideas, comfort, thoughts, as the shadows took them away? But then I remember why we thought a life of travel would be the ticket to a new lifestyle, of ease and comfort, no worries in sight.
There are so many opportunities in our vast world, such as solving a challenging mystery, seeking something you have always wanted to do but never had a chance to, living life to the fullest or just a breath of fresh air, peace into your soul, soothing the mind, and calming the beating heart, or even living in a RV fulltime and travel. Could we fulfill our dreams as the looming “retirement” years were coming, and they were coming mighty fast? What would we do while retired? Sit around and let the world go by, complain about something or even nothing, play a little golf or just learn it, or create an adventure? I think creating an adventure was something we wanted to do. Some of the things we enjoyed doing for many years during our vacations from work or summer vacations with the kids were hiking, camping (in an RV), sightseeing, photography (that is really me) and basically to sum it up, drinking the great outdoors.
If you peel away everything except living in a RV fulltime, that is exactly what we chose to do. But first, how to reduce all the stuff we owned, tell our kids they had to move out (yep, we had to!), shove very little and I mean VERY little into our new RV home, tell our relatives what we were setting out do and they indeed thought we were crazy, and sell our house. Oh, my goodness, how doing all this was going to be so hard!
Tick tock, tick tock, sometimes do you not wish time would move backward instead of forward? To get younger rather than older? But alas, it indeed moves forward, sometimes at a quick pace to the point you need to stop and take a deep breath or a pinch on the skin to realize it is time to go.
The shadows had long since gone and we prepared to live in our small new home, with the little things that were a part of my previous life now starting fresh in a new type of living. Even when we started to put our things into the RV, I realized we still had too much. More things to get rid of so we could live in our tiny home with some comfort, maybe a little elegance, if you can call living in a RV “elegant.” There have been times I felt like everything was stripped from me, things I worked hard for, sweated over, even though it was by choice that we chose to live in an RV.
I wanted to create a new nest for my husband and I, but what would it look like? Would it be all peaches and cream or hot apple pie with delicious vanilla ice cream, waking up to glorious days endlessly, going to those perfect destinations with never-ending mountain ranges, lakes to play in or beaches to ride a wave and never worry about money? Perhaps we would be something spicy like hot tamales where we would argue over places to go, drive into bad weather, unknown areas and must hunker down until it passes, or heaven forbid, a breakdown happens, and more retirement money flies out the door? Would fear rule over my beating heart or would contentment reign as I think of the one thing I should be thinking: life is an adventure.
As I ponder the future, I am reminded ever so gently about the children, who are no longer children, but capable adults who started new lives away from the nest they have known since birth. I think, sometimes too much, about all the time I spent caring and loving them, homeschooling with joy and sometimes with tears, managing the teen years with trepidation at times, but always providing an ear for their tears, it all had ended with an announcement of our impending travels, and poof, all that is gone.
But not the memories.
Memories will be something I will always carry, especially the good ones, but it is time for new memories, memories that I can help formulate with my husband as we search for new places to discover, to photograph, to walk, see, hear, taste and smell, day by day, every day for the rest of our lives.
To invigorate our senses to the fullest.
To feel alive.
To live.
To love.
Author’s Note: We have since left our fulltime RV adventure and settled back into a housing community. While I am thankful we had the opportunity to go forth, I am also thankful to be living a new type of dream. But we will still part time RV camp for hopefully a long time!