Grounded...and Loving It!
My minimalist confession: a big part of my attraction to a minimalist lifestyle was not so much the idea of living with less, but the idea of freedom. As a wife and mother, most of my life is taken up with the needs of other people. The idea of being able to shed responsibilities, and go wherever I want, whenever I want…well, let’s just say, it has it’s appeal.
I’ve always had a bit of wanderlust in my blood. From the time I was a little girl, I was always daydreaming and getting lost in stories that took me out of my urban jungle -- aka, Queens, New York -- and off to far away lands. For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a fascination with French culture and language, even though I have no connection to those things other than what I’ve read in books. And for some reason, I’ve always harbored the feeling that I was born on the wrong side of the country. As a teenager, my first visit to California felt somewhat like a home-coming to me, even though I’d never been there prior to that trip.
As a young adult, I would jump at the chance to travel anytime the opportunity presented itself. At 18, I married an equally young soldier and moved to Germany. After returning with him to the States and moving to Kansas, I decided the white-picket fence life wasn’t for me and moved back to New York, until I was hired to work as a flight attendant for a major airline. The next few years saw me frequently traveling back and forth between France, England, Germany, Spain, the Caribbean, the West Coast, the East Coast, the Midwest and Hawaii.
After leaving the airline I worked for, I remarried, had 2 kids and embarked on a different kind of journey. One that I’m still gratefully and lovingly navigating.
After I started blogging, I began reading about the jet-setting adventures of the “modern minimalists" and I was reminded of my freewheeling, travel bag-toting days.
And yes, I was a bit envious of their nomadic lifestyle. New cities and countries every year…wow! How exciting!
But truth be told, I realized that – wait a minute - I’ve already been there and done that! Was it fun and exciting while it lasted? Heck yes!
Would I trade my life now (including the exhaustion, the distraction, the frazzled overwhelm and constant kid-wrangling) for the high-flying travel life again?
Not a chance.
Kids need stability and a sense of belonging and I’m happy to provide that for my children. That’s not to say we’ll never be a location independent family who lives abroad at some point. That kind of thing is always on my radar.
But I’m absolutely certain that I’m exactly where I need to be right now, providing a home-base, laying the foundation for and stoking the imaginations of kids that will eventually be true citizens of the world.
Right from their very own doorsteps.
