I wanted to comment right away on Nora’s post because it struck a chord of sadness in me but I, instead, thought digested it and then put it on a shelf. In the almost four years of being here, I’ve had only one serious “what have we done” moment. I quickly came round and it left me.

When I see there’s a gang shooting almost everyday for two weeks in a row in the city I left behind and hear from an ex co-worker that the company I worked for just laid off 100 people, I take stock of where we’re at and what we left and all is OK within the tiny, humble framework of my world once again. We’ve learned to live lean and remain debt free but this is what we strived for when earning a decent living in the city.

I’m a person who commits and stays loyal to such. I tend to worry about money and how things are going to get done around here when my husband struggles with debilitating back, shoulder and hip pain from too many years working his butt off. It can be overwhelming but then I place my focus on what’s right and good where I am. When I stand in my driveway on a calm winter night with a full moon casting a blue glow on everything, listening to the river ice cracking (it’s awesome) and coyotes/moose sounding off in the forest, I’m thankful. The sounds of frogs and crickets on a summer evening, the morning sun glistening like diamonds on the river across the street from us, reaping the rewards of a chemical free garden… the list is endless.

No sounds of screeching tires from police chases, no sounds of drive-by gunfire, no light pollution blocking out the stars in the night sky, no smell of car exhaust or neighbours coming home at 3 am, loud and drunk, no insane commutes to work over congested bridges which are sometimes stopped up by a suicide attempt, no road rage, no stress to meet the financial demands of the high cost of living in the city, no office politics…. I could go on but the “finer” things of the city are not all that appealing to me anymore.

This is just my perspective. I don’t have the workload Nora speaks of and I don’t have children to raise so I can’t really say how I would feel if I were in the same situation. However, I would wonder if there’s some satisfaction in living off the land, producing your own heat, food and revenue then finding just a little bit of time to sit on the porch drinking lemonade to focus on what’s right in your world.

There are battles going on in every aspect of life, no matter where one lives. How one chooses to see those battles can change how one views the world and life in general. Perhaps some people are not hard wired for the “simple” life but to have taken the measures to find out is an experience in itself and one to be admired. Some people dream and do nothing; other’s dare to take the plunge and make dreams a reality. There’s something to be said about that.

I bet by now you’ve gone and maybe even come back to the island by now. I wonder how you’re feeling now that you’re back.

I am a bit of a commitment-phobe, in the sense that I never give my whole heart to one thing because it scares me. Even now, I don’t say that I will live here forever. What I will say is that I will live here until I don’t want to live here anymore.

Some people might say that once you start something–move to a new place, get married, whatever–you have to see it through to the very end (your death?) or it’s a “failure.” Take marriage, for example. If you have a wonderful relationship, are together for twenty years and were very happy, but you eventually grow apart and divorce, does that mean that your marriage was a “failure”? How could you call twenty years of happiness a failure?

The same goes with PEI or whatever life path you choose. It’s OK to want to try something, give it your all, and then realize that you want something else.

Any adventure becomes normal life at some point. I guess some people might read this blog and think that we’re having an amazing adventure and we must be blissing out in eternal happiness all the time. Of course, this is not true. Things are great, grand, wonderful, but sometimes things are hard, crappy, ugly.

Chickens, maple syrup, firewood, farm work, housework, raising children, oh my lord. The fact that you are not relaxing on the farm drinking lemonade doesn’t surprise me one bit.

I know this is just a weird babble, but what I am trying to say is that I hear you.

@Christy – What? Accent? Me? No! Never! I sound normal to myself, that’s all I know. :) I’d love to do more movies, but don’t have anything that takes movies these days. It’s on my “to be purchased” list though. Hmm, although I don’t know if I want to give a tour of the inside of the house because…because…then I’d have to clean something.

@Sayantanee – Lol, is that good or bad??

@Michelle – Woo, I love that condensed version of your story. Sometimes there’s that, “Are we really doing this??” moment that finally hits you. So you were the instigator for you two. Cam was the instigator for us; I just kind of followed along once he convinced me that it was a good idea.

@Nora – (Scroll down!)

@Nicole – That’s the plan!

@Gary – Ooh, audio podcast. Would love to!! I have a microphone. But would anyone listen to them? What if I read the posts out loud and recorded them, but still kept posting the written entries, as well? I don’t know if people would listen, though, because it’s hard to scan a podcast, do you know what I mean?

@Jumbly – Thanks Jumbly, my friend who once sent me a delicious valentine. Hope you’re well!

@LJ – I know, it has happened all too fast. Does life really go this quickly? Miss you!

I agree with Christy in that your video adds an extra dimension to your blog. Do you have any more in the Whimfield archives?

It would be really nice if you could do some videos. A house tour and a property tour sound like they would be most interesting.

Have you ever thought about doing an audio podcast? That might be something that could work. Maybe even talking with one or two others who are working on the same type of lifestyle changes.

Expanding media horizons can be a very positive experience.

Smiles :o)

Gary

I got laid off in Jan/05 and told my husband that I was going to pack one box per day because come summer, we were leaving BC for the East Coast. And I did just that… till mid-May when my husband called me from work (he was having a hard time leaving a job that was killing him) and asked me if I was really serious about this. Well, duh! there’s four months of packed boxes stacked everywhere. Two weeks later, we hit the road. Such memories…. exciting and scary at the same time. It was HUGE!