No matter where you go ...

I heard a story many years ago and it keeps coming to mind so I'm going to share it with you:

At the gates of a great city sat an old man. He was poor and ragged but he loved to greet people as they entered and left the city. One day a family stopped to talk to him and they asked him what sort of

city this was. The old man was delighted to be asked but instead of answering, he asked them a question instead. What kind of place had they come from?

Immediately they began describing a place that was too big, too noisy, too filled with crime and bad people, never enough to eat and no longer safe. The old man listened to the long list of flaws and when the people were finally finished, he shook his head sadly and told them to keep traveling for the city they were about to enter was just like that. Discouraged and disheartened, the family continued their journey and bypassed the great city.

The old man went back to enjoying his day and greeting people and soon another family stopped to ask what sort of city this was. The old man was delighted to be asked but instead of answering, he asked them a question instead. What kind of place had they come from? 

Joyfully, the people began describing the beauty and goodness of the place they had come from, how welcome they had felt and what a sweet life they had enjoyed. But these people were adventurers and were seeking new experiences and wanted to meet new people and eat new food and so they had set out to find the next lovely place to live for a while.

Clapping with joy as the story unfolded, the old man welcomed them because this place, he said, was just like that. 

At first glance, it appears that the old man was trying to trick people when in fact, he was lovingly teaching an age-old truth: No matter where we go, there we are. We manifest and feel our lives by what we focus on and talk about and the stories we tell ourselves and others is a great way to discover our focus. No matter where we go, we take with us our beliefs and perceptions, our stories, and create in the new place the same as we had in the old. It can be no other way.

I arrived in Boise ten years ago and created a sweet home and a good life with lots of wonderful friends. I've also experienced some heartbreak and have felt nurtured and cared for here. What a blessing Boise has been for me! Soon I'll be leaving, looking for a new adventure, new friends, new foods, new experiences, but I'll keep my house in Boise because I'll be back. I don't know how long I'll be gone. The last time I did this, I was gone for two years but the time before that I was only gone for four months. The times before that, I left and never went back. So you see, this is not new for me, this uprooting and risk-taking. But I've never lived in another country before and I'd like to try that. I have time in my life for one more big-ass adventure and so I'll go to Mexico and see what life is like in that place. I plan to take my highest self with me and see if I can expand my life even further.

My plan is to rent a big enough house to have guests come and stay ... a vacation accommodation, a B&B of sorts but unofficial, a word-of-mouth sort of thing. Friends and friends of friends. To me, this sounds like a perfect way to live in another country alone but not really alone all the time. If a vacation in Mexico interests you, keep an eye on this blog and I'll post as I go and announce when I'm ready to start booking.

You may wonder what this post has to do with stuff, since that's the title of this blog. To me, stuff is everything. It's what we collect, what we dust and launder and it's also what we pack around inside whether we are aware of it or not. Years ago I had an art business, I created hand-stenciled calligraphy pictures, framed and matted and I sold them in gift shops all over the country. A popular one was, "Home is Where Your Stuff Is." I created it in 1986, pretty sure I did it before George Carlin. As I mentioned before, I was a big mover all my life and that little saying made me feel better about it. New home, same stuff. I can do this. But oh! What about the inner stuff? Yes, I was taking that with me as well and it took a long time before I started sorting and organizing that baggage.

So here in my blog, I'll be sharing stories of all kinds of stuff and photos too, when I have them. It's good to get some clarity so I can get started for real. So much work to do when moving. So much work to do when staying put. But after ten years I'm glad to get going again! Can't wait to get to Mexico and tell that cheerful old man how great Boise was.

Moving ... Again

No one likes to move. At least, I've never met anyone who liked to move. It's stressful and confusing and just hard work. Uprooting a life and all the stuff that goes with it is a major undertaking even if there's not much stuff and the move isn't far away. 

      My first major move was when my family went from Garden Grove, California (near LA) to Baker, Oregon, a small ranch community in Eastern Oregon not far from the Idaho border. I was 11 years old and it was 1964. The Beatles were hot on the music scene; that was a pivotal year for music, the year that Elvis was challenged for the throne and was toppled shortly thereafter. I had a small transistor radio that I had gotten for my birthday the year before and it was never turned off. It would take a whole book to describe in detail how that move affected me, the culture shock that I experienced upon arriving in the wilderness with only one radio station that at that time played nothing current, because there was nothing current about Baker. I never did adjust to life in that town but I did come to love some aspects of it and it did help me to be more flexible in my character then I might have been otherwise. 

      But that wasn't my first move. From age 5, when I moved to LA area to live with my mother and her new husband, to age 11 when we packed up and left the state, we had moved four times. Before age 5, there's no way for me to guess at how many places we lived, how many times we moved or even how many people, mostly relatives, that my brother and I lived with. After moving to Baker, the family moved five times, each one an upgrade, before I left home for good at age 18. 

      Not long ago I created a comprehensive list of the addresses I've had in my life and the count is well over 50 from age 5 to age 54, when I moved into the house where I've lived for the past 9+ years. I'm glad I've gotten to experience a feeling of stability here in Boise, Idaho; this is by far the longest I've lived in one house or even one town in my entire life. And as much as I've loved it and benefited from the extended stay, I feel it's time to move again. This time to another country, which will be a first for me. Mexico is looming as a place of interest and a recent vacation has convinced me that there is a new life to be had in the area just south of Guadalajara on the shores of Lake Chapala. 

     The effort and focus it's going to take to get there is rather daunting and I will only be taking what I can fit into my old car, a 1994 Pontiac Grand Am that I've had since she was brand new. At this stage of her life, it turns out that she's the perfect vehicle to take to Mexico, older but in good repair, nothing new or fancy to worry about. Her name is Sybil and she and my old cat, Rocky, will be perfect companions for this, what could very well be my last, adventure. 

I've created this blog as a place to post photos and stories as I sort, pack and purge my stuff in preparation for this huge move. My estimated time of departure so far is June 1st but it's just a date to shoot for, I have no solid plans or commitments at this time and anything could happen. This will be the ride of a lifetime, a rare move for a single woman over 60 with no friends or relatives in the area I'm heading for. As we go along I'll tell you about some of my other risky moves, all stories worth telling and some of them quite hair-raising! Since the stories I have to tell are contained in so many of the items I've kept throughout the years, that's how I'll let them unfold ... as the sweet stories of my stuff and also the wild and crazy moves I've made in my life. It's been a nice, interesting, relatively long life so far but armed with terrific health, plenty of income and a great attitude, I expect lots of opportunities for personal growth in my future and I can't wait to get started.