Thanksgiving

and oh so many things to be thankful for.It’s hard to even remember where we were last year at this time.  A quick glance through old photos reminds me that we had just heard of and decided to join some crazy race called the Maya Rally, we were touring the historic colonial cities of central mexico and were trying desperately to hold the bus together with bailing wire while continuously dismantling our carburetor to figure out why the bus only ran on 2 cylinders most of the time.  It seems a world away.

One thing i do well remember among the excitement and chaos of our trip was longing for home and for the community of family and friends we missed so dearly.  And also for a place to call home.  Maybe not a permanent dwelling in the common sense of the word, but at least a place to use as home base.  A place we knew was ours and could return to between adventures.  Somewhere central to the group we love so dearly.

This year we gathered the night before thanksgiving to toast old friends.  Again first thing thanksgiving morning to eat breakfast and watch football together, prepare a feast and head outside to play.  We wrapped up the evening playing games and building a puzzle with family and woke up early to load into a van headed for wine country. It was beautiful, warm, fun and fulfilling.  It was everything we returned for.  We both feel so thankful to have so many wonderful people in our lives and that they (and their families) reach out to us with open arms.  We're also thankful for so many others that sadly aren’t close enough to gather in the same room, but with whom we share so much and feel so close to.  We are truly fortunate to have so many wonderful people in our lives.

Words also can't describe how thankful we are to be in the place in life we find ourselves.  To be living truly as we want to be and exploring possibilities for how to make it continue.  Our past two years have been not only life changing, but exciting and fun.  It hasn’t always been easy and it certainly hasn’t been without doubts and fears, but it has been entirely worth everything we spent and risked to see the world from this angle.

Even now we both know that without finding some form of income this lifestyle cannot continue and our savings will soon enough be depleted, but i feel so thankful to have been able to experience life in this manner no matter how long it might last.  Im thankful that we were both willing to take the leap towards something unknown.   That we were brave enough to take the road less traveled and that we believe in each other enough to continue trying.  That we choose to see things from the other side and know that there is always another option.  That there is always an choice of freedom however difficult and foreign it might seem in the moment.

After a few days of celebrating all that we have to be thankful for - we built some walls inside of our future home base.  If we flew around the neighborhood collecting sticks and branches and yarn it couldn’t feel any more like we are building a nest.  Ours might not be so elegantly constructed and the building inspector may still make us tear the whole thing down when he comes onsite...but it feels like a huge step forward in our quest.  Bathroom walls, check.  Electrical rough in, check.

Our nest is coming along quite quickly.