The Next Step

Once upon a time I had a four year plan which came to fruition with 8 spectacular months in the north woods building a cabin.  One of the most memorable moments came along when I literally couldn't remember what day of the week it was.  Time passed differently for my dog and I, marked primarily by the arrival and departure of friends and family and the changes in the mountain ash.

For a host of reasons, not too long after, I found myself in central Minnesota working for a small company doing everything from circuit board maintenance to database administration.  In a company like ours, with a head count of 6 at the time, there were a lot of daily functions which needed to get done by whoever could make it happen.  On the job training.  Having a hat rack in each office, as our owner might say.  Oddly, I'm now the most senior employee under the owners themselves and all that on the job training has really paid off.

A couple years ago the situation got particularly difficult for my son and I.  With the both of us working harder than ever, our bank account kept going further into the red despite what I would consider a favorable foundation.  It became obvious we had to change things up.  And out of that change came a lot of very good things.  Living the dream is what I've called it.  And the next step in that dream is a new plan.  It started this past spring with the bees.  It continues this June with a consolidation of households.  And beyond that a search and what I hope might be a final relocation to the ever-more-difficult-to-find land of the free.  The exact form of which to be determined.

Much of this process will be a continuing change in mindset and reevaluation of priorities.  A real decision to make the most of the less than perfect.  To live a true and moral and good life now and into the future.  Being wealthy outside the scope of what the rest of the world tells us that scope should be.  And, to a certain extent, finding happiness beyond the safety nets instead of being trapped by them.