We rang in the New Year in a very quiet manner this year because we have both been fighting some bug. So we stayed home and watched movies, and listened to the fireworks and cheering outside our window.
We also took the time to discuss what we though the New Year might bring for us and what our goals for this coming year were. We had planned to "hit the road" again this spring. Something we've waited two very, very long years for. It seems that might not happen in exactly the same way we thought it might though.
Because during those two long years of primarily being in one spot, something happened that has changed our lives in a pretty big way. I fell in love. It was not something anyone could have expected, and yet it isn't hard to believe that it did. After all, the guy I fell for is handsome, rugged and really smart and fun. Who could resist that combination?
The truth is, I fell not only for him, but for a bunch more spectacular creatures at the sanctuary I enjoy spending time at. The more I spent time there, the more all of them became a part of me and this love has changed me. I was in denial over how much so until we went away to The Villages this past summer. I discovered that while I loved our time there, I missed the horses so much so that I seemed to only be able to go a few weeks away from them without seriously missing them.
This led to some talks about what to do about that, and long story short: we are now considering buying a house so I can foster some of the horses. The long talks between Nathan and I were not so much whether to do that or not. It was kind of a no-brainer to do it given my love for it. The part we needed to figure out was how to blend that with being full timers. Because we are full timers, no matter what else happens in our lives. Just like we are parents, no matter what happens else happens in our lives. We haven't just been traveling as in it was one thing on a long list of things we have done, but we are gypsies at heart as in that's who we are.
I have found in sharing this past week, that there are those that get that and those that don't. So I share and if they get it, we talk about it because they understand the fears and sadness that go along with the huge sacrifice of surrendering some parts of the full timing lifestyle that we have enjoyed for years now. If I share and they don't, I quickly just move onto parts that they hopefully can relate to. I understand that unless you have lived it, there isn't any real way to "get it".
So why write all of this out here then, if I know that many who read it really won't "get all of it"? Because it is a part of our show us the world journey, even if the way we are doing it might be altered due to new things in our life.
So as strange as it will seem to most, this is not us settling down or a entering a new chapter in our lives. It is us adding to the life we have and enjoy and figuring out how to add more to it without taking away from the parts that are most important to us. And it has been no small task to figure out how exactly that will work in real ways.
We have thought long and hard about how to blend all of the parts that are "us" together in a way that is truly do-able. We hope to find a place that is a mix of as little of a house obligation as possible and as much horse friendly land as possible, along with the ever important kind to our budget so we can still move about and see the world that way some too. We'll see how we do with that rather tall order.
I'm fortunate that unlike most horse people, I have a place for the horses when we do want to physically move about. I'm grateful that being in one spot much of the time will give me time with my children who will all be within driving distance except the one in Michigan that we are working on to get back down to Florida. And I'm really thankful that everyone we have shared this with, is happy for us that we are moving towards something that brings us joy. It's a great thing to celebrate on this New Year's Day!
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