Wandering Spirit

July 8….Today I gave notice that I’ll be moving out of my rental home on August 10th. Now that is Major! That is a commitment to my new and upcoming lifestyle! Whew, I may be sitting here on my air mattress (I sold my bed in the yard sale) but I’m jumping up and down on the inside!

I’m kinda feeling higher than a kite right now, just from excitement. 🙂

AND, tomorrow (July 9), is my birthday. Who would have thunk I’d be excited about turning 65? Sixty-five! Jeesh. But I am, because 65 is…in my case…what gives me my ‘right of passage’ into a new lifestyle. It’s been a long time coming and well earned…and I’m about to spread my wings…whoo-hoo!
And besides, I don’t FEEL 65. Whatever that means.

Meanwhile, back down on planet earth, I’m still packing and repacking and sorting things and stuff. I’m experimenting with what will fit into my truck bed, and trying to remember to think in terms of ‘how little do I need?’, rather than ‘how much can I take?’. If I end up with too much crammed into the back of the truck, I won’t be able to find it when I need it, and I’ll be carrying around extra weight that isn’t really necessary anyway. However, never having done this before, I’m not really sure what I ‘need’, so I may be learning a lot of that by trial and error.

Back to Zen Things again, (see blog entry from a couple of weeks ago)

5.Put space between things. (guess that works better than ‘cramming’.)

11. Think about what is necessary. (do I really need to bring about 25 DVD’w with me?)

12. Live Simply (I really like the sound of that.)

Writing helps me capture my thoughts and look at them, and right now it’s helping me see that no, bringing 25 DVD’s really isn’t necessary. 🙂

So much to do….so many loose ends to tie up.

Going back to the “Zen Things”, ‘Do one thing at a time’ is something I’m striving for right now, because I find, in my mind at least, I’m trying to do or sort out 3 or 4 things at any given time, and that is very counter-productive and confusing.

I’ve found out that in this process of minimizing, the deeper into it I go, the more difficult it becomes. Those first layers of ‘stuff’, like the cloths that never did fit right or the shoes I didn’t really like anyway ….that was a piece of cake.  Now, not so much.   It’s an emotional roller coaster, with all these decisions about what to let go of, then the pain of letting go, followed quickly by a sigh of relief, after I’ve done so.  Each item I release allows me to feel a bit more freedom, and a bit more lightness, and that feels good and right.  I’m glad to be doing it, but I’ll be REALLY HAPPY when the process is FINISHED and I’m on the road!

On the lighter side….

Tomorrow morning, July 1, I’ll be registering for my first Casita Rally, which is being held in Grapeland, Texas near the end of October.  Every time I say that name, the song “Graceland” (Simon and Garfunkle) plays in my head, except I replace the ‘Graceland’ with ‘Grapeland’ and it makes me giggle.  🙂  

“I’m going to Grapeland, Grapeland, Memphis, Tennessee.  I’m going to Grapeland.  I’ve reason to believe, we all will be received at Grapeland.” 

Hope I made you smile!  🙂

Over a week ago I typed up a letter with notice of my retirement to turn in at work.  

LAST EVENING, WITH EXACTLY 7 WEEKS UNTIL JULY 31,  I GAVE THE LETTER TO MARCY, THE PM SHIFT ASSISTANT DIRECTOR!!!

Yes, I’m shouting that line!  WHOO-HOO!  The wheels of change are rolling in an official direction now.  It seems too good to be true, but it’s looking like I might make it to beyond July 31, 2014, my ‘official’ retirement date.

I’ve worked at CHOMP (Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula) for most of the last 17 years, and I’ve worked somewhere for the last 48 years, so to think of the freedom of not having to show up somewhere on a regular basis is mind blowing for me.  It makes my heart pound with anticipation.  

Not that I won’t miss the sweet women that I work with!  I couldn’t ask for a better team of people to be part of….it’s been good….it’s been fun most of the time, we’ve shared much, and I hope that we remain in contact as time goes by.  Yes, I sure will miss ‘the girls’.  But the fact remains that there is only one ‘girl’ older than me who works in the Family Birth Center now…God bless her soul….and it’s really time for me to move on.  

I’d like to say that after I turned in the letter we spent some time talking over old times and shared some laughs, but no way did that happen!  It was SO BUSY as it has been recently, that we had no time for any kind of discussion at all, we just zoomed around all evening since it seems like everybody and her sister on the Monterey Peninsula and beyond is coming in to have a baby right now.  What happened nine months ago, anyway??  🙂

So on I go, preparing for a future that will be a whole new lifestyle starting at age 65.  It’s WAY exciting, and also a bit scary to say the least, but I’m so thankful that this dream to travel and explore is about to come to fruition.  

Bring it on!

Ok, I saw this posted on FaceBook, but it really reached out to me as retirement looms and I prepare to make large lifestyle changes. The FB site “The Mind Unleashed” gets credit for this list:

Zen Things

1.  Do one thing at a time

2.  Do it slowly and deliberately

3.  Do it completely 

4.  Do less

5.  Put space between things

6.  Develop rituals

7.  Designate time for certain things

8.  Devote time to sitting

9.  Smile and serve others

10.  Make cleaning and cooking become meditation

11.  Think about what is necessary

12.  Live simply

Obviously one does not need to retire to live by zen principles, but because I’m reorganizing my life as well as my thoughts, this might be a good time to work on putting these practices into effect, no?  

Any thoughts on this?

I’d like to introduce you to my traveling companions, Joy and Shiloh, the sweet beings that have been keeping me company for many years now.  Yes, they are big and rambunctious.  Yes, they are hairy and shed like crazy.  And yes, they are sometimes stinky (but more often they smell like sweet grass and sunshine).

 Will traveling with them be a challenge?  Oh yeah!!….but for me, there would be no other way.

Joy (left) is well named, and easily the most joyful individual I’ve yet to meet.  She will not only greet you when you walk in the door, but she will do it over and over again during your visit, leaving no doubt in your mind that you are the most loved human, ever.  She gives new meaning to the phrase ‘jump for Joy’, and when she’s not jumping, she’s bouncing.

Shiloh is all about peace and stability, and he’s always watching out for me in his gentle manner.  He tolerates Joys goofiness without batting his beautiful, long eyelashes, and he even partakes in it sometimes.  More often than not, he will be the one who posts himself beside me.  He watches and listens, and sniffs, and when he greets you, it’s because you have earned his respect.

There is so much we can learn from animals, and they are such patient teachers!  Understanding their language is not a problem when we listen with our hearts.  I hope I am an apt student because I’d like to be more like these amazing four-legged furry ones.

A few years back when I was making the decision to pursue the full-time RV lifestyle, I began looking on the internet to learn what it was all about, and how to make it happen.  There were books to buy, websites, discussion boards, and blogs galore.  There was information on any aspect of RVing that you can imagine, including pre-retirement, working while on the road, full time, part time, pets, boon docking, and women solo.  I sorted through much of it, and found my favorite places.  My favorite place over these years has been a blog called RVSue and her Canine Crew ( rvsueandcrew.net ). 

After years of planning and saving, Sue retired from teaching, sold her home in Georgia, set out with her two little companions Spike and Bridget, and headed to Rice, Texas to pick up the Casita travel trailer that she had ordered months earlier, but not yet set eyes on!  Three years ago this coming August, she began her life on the road and has never looked back.  Sue and Crew have been a huge motivation and inspiration for me, and they have helped me keep the dream alive.  Thank you Sue, Bridget and Spiky!  

Two months from today I retire!!

Saturday and Sunday were very tiring both emotionally and physically!  Monday I was scheduled to work but as luck would have it I was able to be ‘on-call’, and I was never called in.  The luck wasn’t all mine….the Family Birth Center was better off without me, being all dazed and confused (and very tired) as I was.  

Now my energy is coming back and it’s time to reorganize.  First I’m working with the things left from the sale that didn’t sell.  Those items are being donated to 3 different charities, and some I put out in front of the house along with a ‘FREE’ sign.  Also I’m in the process of returning tables and such that I borrowed from friends.  

Next will be the task of reorganizing what I kept.  I don’t know where anything is!  Everything has been moved around…out of drawers and into bins, and shoved into closets so it would be out of the way when people came inside to look at furniture during the sale….AND there is still too much stuff.  It’s amazing the amount of ‘stuff’ one can have in an 800+ sq ft home!  

My new home, Wandering Spirit, is 17 feet long, and about 6 feet wide, with storage space in the bed of the truck, so I’m going to be very picky about what I bring along.  🙂  

What a challenge!  And I’m loving it!

This week end, with the help of Jason and Mandy, I brought just about all my possessions out on the front lawn and sold them.  Some things I gave away.  The sale was wildly successful, because it was well advertised and the prices were low.  Sometimes it felt like I was selling pieces of ‘me’…but then I  had to remember….let go….detach…..the only ‘me’ there is lives inside my body and spirit.  

Overnight I’m a minimalist! 🙂  How do I feel now?  Well, there is a bit of shock….but beyond that, it feels like a relief.  I feel lighter, like I could float.  I feel peaceful.  I’m sleeping on an air mattress, sitting in ‘bag chairs’ and using a plastic bin for a table for the next couple of months, and it’s all good.

This week end has been a big step in the direction of my dreams, and I’m grateful to those who helped, and to all those who stopped by and bought something, or took some of the free stuff.  We were all equally blessed.  

That’s my goal… roll me away.  That also happens to be the title of song by Bob Seger that I have always loved.  He’s singing about rolling on a motorcycle, but it’s kinda the same deal:

“Stood alone on a mountain top, staring out at the great divide.

I could go east, I could go west, it was all up to me to decide.

Just then I saw a young hawk flying, and my soul began to rise…

And pretty soon, my heart was singing…

Roll…roll me away, I wanna roll me away tonight.  

Gotta keep rolling, gotta keep riding,

Keep searching till I find what’s right…”

My plan is that I’ll be rolling away with my little Casita travel trailer named “Wandering Spirit”, towed by my 2012 Ford F150, aka “Joy Ride”, and along with me will be my sweet pupsters/companions/furbabies/friends, Joy and Shiloh.  

I’ve been dreaming this dream for a few years, but now as retirement looms only 68 days away, it’s all getting very real, and very exciting. Soon the dream and the goal will become reality.  Wanna come along with me via this blog?  I’d love your company!