A short time ago my friend Kim, from So-Many-Places, wrote a beautiful piece on what she was grateful for and invited others to share their thoughts. In this time of negative news, it is more important than ever to remember that the majority of us have many, many things to be grateful for every single day. This weekend, Jim was enjoying a night away on a guys camping trip and I found myself home alone for the first time in a long time and thought about all of the many things I’m grateful for.
“Your dream is not big enough if it doesn’t scare you”
FEAR. We all experience it, whether it be the everyday fear of spiders or a debilitating fear of the dark. I’m sure we all just as often find our actions paralyzed by our fears. Fear of commitment. Fear of death. Fear of being along. Fear of failure. Fear of Success.
Torre DeRoche wrote a book about her fear, “Love, with a Chance of Drowning”, and is encouraging the rest of us to face our fears by recording them for all to see and even throwing some competitive spirit into it with a contest. Reading some of the other entries, I started to think about what really scares me to my bones. My first immediate thought was losing Jim. I realize the loss of a spouse is a bit of a pat answer to some but we are truly soul mates. We’ve been together more years than we have lived apart. We are nearly inseparable; commuting together, living together, and for our round-the-world spending 24/7 together for 14 months. The mere though of losing him brings me to my knees, breathless, and unable to comprehend how I could go on.
On our quest for a life less ordinary, we are always searching out those who inspire us, whether it be fellow travelers, authors, or even movies. We thrive on others who are CHOOSING their life, rather than following the path of least resistance.
Over the course of our journey we have received a great deal of support from friends and family, even when they didn’t understand our motivations.
We have just as often dealt with the cynicism of the majority. The naysayers who said we were crazy. The critics who “knew” all would end in tragedy. The negative voices who whispered phrases such as “this must be a mid-life crisis”. Continue reading