Jen takes a break as she contemplates a very difficult section to negotiate. She usually has good sense for survival.
They say a house is a man’s castle or maybe, we should express it differently suggesting that a home is a woman’s palace. In the ideal sense, when a man and woman come together in harmony, it would seem the place in which they live may not be as important as the space they occupy together. What’s this all about? Don’t ask me, what I do I know? After all, we were talking with a family member a couple of years ago when he looked up at me and I could see he wanted to mention something important but was thinking carefully of how to express it. Although he’s not a man to avoid controversial topics, he seemed hesitant on this one. Finally, he smiled, blushed slightly and offered the following comment. (Continues at end...)
Reflections along the river.
At times, an intimidating canyon.
Up from the canyon, over the peak and heading down to the river.
Meantime, he tries to catch up with the tracker.
If you can't find a ladder, what about dead trees?
Warming up out of the cool slot canyon.
For every down there's a corresponding up--life's balance in action.
Relegated to the 'dog box' for something he said.
“I can’t understand you,” he began. “It’s in our DNA,” he continued, “that a person needs to have a house (home) of a permanent nature.”
It was an unusual comment but one that I took no umbrage from as I have been told we probably don’t have a full set of DNA (if that’s a possibility) either (or is it a full box?) Of course, an advantage of not buying a house is not acquiring a mortgage either…as well as skipping all the maintenance issues. Nevertheless, those are side issues, more of a diversion. Frankly, there was a time we too could not envisage living without a formal abode, furnished with our personal items beautifying the home. Therefore, his comment, seemingly out of place at first, turned out to be quite accurate although perhaps for a different reason.
Truth be told, I could never envisage myself being away from home for extended periods. In Jenni’s case, she probably was less attached to things than me. How life can change and often does. Before moving on, we met another person who became part of the extended family. He had difficulty understanding how people at our station in life did not own a house. At the time, we envisaged traveling and so had sold a property and were renting an apartment. When he learned that we had owned domestic property during our years together, he felt comforted. Always nice to assuage people.
There are a few people who understand us and realize what we do although even less are cognitive of life on the road with ultimate goals of experiencing and living in the natural world. We had decided to leave the channel and seek freedom and pursue our passion. The channel is a method of maintaining a routine as people move between the home, office and various social gatherings within communities. While we all would utter how much we believe in freedom, in practice, people tend to gravitate to conformity, something quite different or even the opposite of liberty. This is a deep subject so we’ll skip over it although we have dealt with it in other forums. One proviso though. We offer an opinion on life, lifestyles effectively, which is just that...one of many approaches to life, neither right nor wrong.
We opted to see, feel, enjoy, experience as well as face challenges of our planet outside the routine of regular life rather than remain attached to one place. By definition, a fixed abode chains a person to a location, a routine and style of life. It becomes the starting point and ending position each day, and in many cases, for most of the time in-between. We realized each person has two tests to answer. The first is to be able to ask the question at the end of each day whether a person accomplished anything meaningful on the day. The second is whether a person will be ready and able to answer our maker at the end of life. The question asked might be: “So what did you think of my world? Did you experience and enjoy it?”
In case we did not make it clear, we realize our life is a mere experiment and no matter how hard we try, we will only experience a tiny fraction of what’s on offer. Nevertheless, each day, particularly when we are outside our resting environment, we witness miracles. It may sound a little off the wall but as someone once said, “You had to be there”. We also wish to make the point that our lifestyle is only one of millions. Each person has the right and privilege of dealing with life and its journey in a unique way. Now we’ll move off that subject and mention our bed.
Perhaps the opening paragraphs had to be written and read for otherwise, the next part might be pretty disgusting, or for some, very modern. By definition, should one live in a fixed abode, chances are that a person or couple have a bed. How many people become attached to their beds? We might suggest, positively, a bed may be compared with the womb. Who would not seek the protection of the womb at the conclusion of waking hours? What a special place to occupy when the world becomes too much to take, when a person is weary and depressed or just requires rest to re-charge.
We once had a bed. In fact, over the years, we had to replace them from time-to-time, even trying out a water mattress at one stage. It proved useful when we had to move house one year as we only had to float down the stairs and along the road to our new home close by. Since taking to the road and mountains near on eleven years ago, we have occupied hundreds of different beds although slept with the same person on each occasion, I hope. (That’s really not funny at all, but I could not resist). We have slept on (in?) beds in hotels, motels, houses, apartments, aparthotels, tents, cars, huts, outside, and places we forget. The interesting aspect is that in all that time, we have never longed for our own bed. For, when it’s time to lay our heads and bodies down, the place we do it becomes our bed. We’ve always maintained that it’s not what we have, but what we do that counts. Our happiness comes not from our possessions but rather, how we function, that we pursue our passions, have meaning in our lives and fulfill our purposes, whatever they may be.
Anyway, the last bed we owned was placed in storage with the rest of our household effects. A couple of years after the transfer, our son Robert, needed a bed. Therefore, should we settle down and move our rather large quantity of possessions into a permanent abode, we’ll still be missing a bed. We finally arrive at the purpose of this note. We are seeking donations in order to purchase a queen bed. All contributions will be accepted gladly and acknowledged with appreciation and we’ll always have you in our hearts and minds, even when we sleep.
Don't forget our 'take it with a pinch (grain) of salt', mentioned in an earlier blog, after reading the concluding couple of sentences.
The river makes another of its sharp turns.
Cheers,
Jenni and Jeffrey
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