In preparation for writing this post I have been thinking a lot about the duality of our life the way we are living it. It is an interesting thought to me because ever since Covid I feel like I’ve been embracing the nonbinary of things. You’ve more than likely heard me say more than once that multiple things can exist at the same time, and that feels good, infinite almost. I asked Google if there is a “better” way of saying dual or double life and it shared with me this quote from Confucius “We have two lives; the second begins when we realize we only have one.” This quote makes me wonder if the word confusing came from Confucius. 😂
We’ve been back in that Midwest now for four weeks tomorrow and it is all going so fast! At the risk of sounding redundant, the learning curve is still steep. We have done a really good job of making changes to our visits each time we’re home. This is in an effort to not have it be so different, see emotional whiplash, from when we’re gone and we are quickly learning that is darn near impossible.
Every return home has been different. We’ve gone from feeling like it is too much time, to not enough time, to taking advantage of the generosity which is a free place to stay, and then realizing staying with people is hard when you’re used to it just being the two of you. Also being intentional about still making time for each other when we’re home while simultaneously wanting to be with the people that we’ve been missing while away. This visit we’ve only had to change locations one time and the level of peace that has brought is tangible. And, I’ve been feeling more melancholy this visit. Instead of being ready to leave in three weeks I’m going to be sad to say see you later. Even though it is never easy it hits different this time. I’m trying to remind myself the only constant is change and to embrace that as part of my growth journey.
One thing that has been consistent, up until this visit, is that however the time home has gone we always knew where we were going when we left. This time has felt a little more gunky because we have been waiting for Dave’s work to announce where they will be hosting their whole company meet up. It can be anywhere in the world and since he missed it last year because it was in Portugal and we were in Japan, he really wanted to make it work this year. We were thinking once we knew where it was going to take place that would help us decide which area of the world we were going to. Historically they have announced the location around April, so not knowing caused us to have planning paralysis. He just found out yesterday!
In the meantime we’ve tried to plan a few things. I think that by the last time I wrote we had at least purchased our flight leaving Minnesota. A few days after we were home, as Dave was planning to leave for a guys trip to Vegas, I kind of pitched a fit about not knowing where we were going past June 26th. Not my finest moment. 😉 To be fair, this is the closest to departure we have gotten, in the almost three years of this adventure, without knowing what was happening two months from then. We had talked about looking for inexpensive flights places, from wherever we were, and going from there. So on April 28th, just three days after arriving home, we did just that. The first flight we booked was to Toronto, Canada. We had been talking about wanting to go back to Canada and the flight from NYC was inexpensive. Then from there we took a very uninformed leap and bought a flight to Alaska! I say uninformed because we bought the flight based solely on the fact that it was cheap and we’ve never been. We had done zero research about Alaska other than July is a great time to go! It may have not been the most fiscally responsible choice in hindsight but we’re chalking it up to a once in a lifetime opportunity and I’ll be able to visit my 50th state before I’m 50!
Now that Dave finally knows where his meet up will be, we have been able to do more planning and it feels incredible to be able to do that again. We know with certainty that during this next leg, our 5th, we are going to be in North America. We still have a few weeks of travel that are open to where the spirit moves us, and it feels good to know that we’ll be back in the Midwest early November for the holidays. A little bit of gunk, some faith and a whole bunch of gratitude, and we are back on track. We are grateful for this life that we are able to live because we only have one! We celebrate each day we wake up breathing ready to take on whatever comes our way. One day at a time!
Sending you a universe of love wherever you are!
❤️Alison
PS as usual, when we’re home, most of the pictures I take are of our people so there aren’t too many to share, and here’s a snippet of what it has looked like so far. Enjoy!
