I've always felt the path our lives follow is defined by the decisions we take at critical junctions.
And, we all make those same decisions. You know what I mean ... like, where would we be now if I had chosen to take that marine surveying job off Seal Island on Canada's East Coast when I was 24 ... but instead, stayed in Ottawa, didn't find work until several months later and stayed at that same job for 30 years. Where would we be if Helen's father hadn't strongly encouraged us to stay at our jobs when we talked about quitting and tried to justify leaving at age 40 or so ... not sure what our plan was in hind-sight, but I'm sure glad now that we stuck it out - Thanks! Earl. Do we take the right fork or the left fork?
For some reason, looking back on all those 'moments', (and there were several others), I believe we fortunately and consistently did make the right choice ... and now we've made another. We have decided to put our retirement home up for sale. We are going to downsize considerably, sell or otherwise get rid of stuff and travel extensively. We're going to become 'Most-Timers'. What makes this a difficult choice is that we simply love where we are living. We have everything we could possibly want here. We have a wonderful mixed forest acreage on a small, wetland lake with a healthy population of wildlife all around us. The house sits high on a rocky section of shoreline.
We look out in the winter and often see Brush Wolves crossing the lake ice, White-tailed Deer visit our feeders and it's not unusual to see Fisher hunt the shorelines.
There are only three other homeowners on the lake and there are no other lots available, so we are very private. We designed and built a comfortable home. So, why are we leaving ... We Must Be CRAZY!
Honestly, we just aren't at home much anymore and have plans for even more travel ... our bucket list is growing. We're both collecting the pension now, so the years are starting to catch us. We have our health and fortunately aren't on the bottles of pills that many of our generation are at this age. We're also both quite curious ... we have a desire to meet, see and experience people, things and places. We've only seen 16 of the world's 196 (+/-) sovereign nations, only met a few thousand of the world's population and only seen a handful of amazing places, so ... I guess it truly is 'The Time To Do This!
There ya go ... Guess We're Not Crazy Afterall!
I don't think we're crazy, we're lucky!
ReplyDeleteI can see how it would be very difficult to give up this place that you have chosen and built this home to meet your needs. From my prospective, I would want to keep this place, somehow, for future use. Hard to find a place like this. I also see your desire to travel. That is in all of us, more so in you two I see, but the need to move along, experience new places and new people and new things can be pretty strong. So strong that it may blurr good decision making. Just saying, things can change in a heartbeat and you may someday want to have this retreat. Oh, and by the way, some luck may have played a part but the biggest part of your place right now is working hard and making good decisions. Good luck with this one
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DeleteI wish more people your age and in your good health would take the leap and do what their heart desires. Time has a funny way of moving on, with or without us! I promise to find the perfect people who will appreciate all that you have created there and who will care for all your wild critters :)
ReplyDeleteHave fun on your winters journey,
Susan
Thanks Susan, we feel we are truly blessed, we will follow our hearts. We feel confident that you will find a new caretaker for our critters (including Christine) happy winter
ReplyDelete... it's no adventure if there's no risk involved. I'd take a flawed experience over a missed opportunity any day. Old folks seem to regret what they didn't do, not so much what they did. By all indications, you won't likely be these folks.
ReplyDeleteOur philosophy exactly ...
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