"What is she up to now?!"

We leave in 2 days. I started packing last night.
We will get off this dirt road, travel on a paved road for about half an hour, then take another half an hour on more dirt road. The last part of the trip is up a steep driveway to our new destination. So I can reflect once again about the whole Destination vs The Journey to get there.
We are going to house sit. Once again I get asked questions, the kind where I hesitate to even guess at the answer. Where is it? Ok, it doesn't have an address, but I could find the latitude and longitude if I tried. It's less than half a mile from a tiny town called Huacas that appears to have one store, and under 900 residents. There are no real street names, no numbers on houses, and there are at least two towns called Huacas in Costa Rica. This is the itty bitty version.
How long will we be there? Ron says two months or more, the owner says until the place is sold, and I say: "Bring it on". I'm going with the flow this year. I think it will be like a retreat of sorts. A decent sized house that is mostly empty but has all the basics. Very bohemian, nothing on the walls but two mirrors. Zero clutter. That's my favorite part. Although I have to empty out the contents of the generous kitchen cupboards while we are there.
We will be surrounded by acres of coffee and orange trees. Maybe one day I will do an inventory of the types of fruit trees there while we are landscaping. Have you ever seen or heard of a guyabana plant? I hear some call it soursop. There is at least one of those. I will do a post on it, maybe someone reading this wants to buy this piece of paradise? It's "for sale by owner".
It's funny the reactions I get from people as we reach out and grab opportunities that pass by us. I have one son who just kind of shrugged and said he supposes we are lucky, we don't give ourselves time to get in a rut. I have some people who practically think it's not fair that we can travel when and where we want. It's not fair. I'm fairly young, and I'm not fairly rich. So how does that work? I don't even know. I'm working on an answer to that. My heart wanted to travel. The Universe found a way, once I let go and let it work it's magic.
I saw something today that says it well.

I hear from many people who say they wish they could travel like I do. But do they also wish to pay the price I have paid? I gave up the idea of having a pet dog, which I would love to have. I gave up having an income, so I have to give up buying things, give up wanting things, give up having things.
It has been beautiful though! I don't need much, and that is the real freedom. I had to give up being in the same city, state, and country as my children and grandchildren. That's the real price for me. But that's life. The closest we can get is living in Cedar City in Utah where three of nine kids live, and one sister. No matter where we go, it's about phone calls and video calls, and social media and blogging to keep in touch.
Those who admire our travels also have to admire what we gave up for these adventures. There is always a give and take, don't let my blog of the good stuff fool you. Yesterday was a beautiful day where I spent time with a 93 year old lady who makes me feel so young. I got a good workout pushing her wheelchair from the house through the sand to the beach. We sat in the shade of palm trees and watched the waves come in and the people go by. Then I walked home down the beach, maybe a 20-30 minute walk. But it was the middle of the day and I forgot my hat/sunscreen. So I came home wiped out. Arms sore from pushing the wheelchair. Dehydrated. Sunburned. And happy to have spent time with a lovely friend. It took a while to get some energy back, though. I get over-heated often. All I can do is jump in the shower then sit under the fan while it feels like my brain is melting, and I can't even think straight.
I was able to relax, and then we went to a restaurant called Oh La La. A French place with great and unusual pizza. We ordered the curry chicken pizza and the goat cheese with honey and... basil, I think. Very good, and thin crust. The sun went down in a grand display of orange and pink blended clouds offset by the blue sky.
These are some of my tidal moments. The moments that happen one minute at a time, and before you know it, the tide has come in again. I am trying to let go of the past and the future, to be uninterrupted and focused in the only real time there is. Right now. That's where all of the power is. Right now.

If you don't hear from me in a while it's because we think there will be phone service, but no TV and no internet. We will come down the driveway to find internet every once in a while, I think. Until then I will be busy with the monkeys and parrots and fruits and quiet life. More time to write my book, I can't believe it. I have run out of excuses now!
You know how at the end of a busy day we say we want to just sit down and "unwind" from all the busy stuff and urgent things and big distractions? Well that is what I have been doing for the last year or so. Unwinding from all that Life was, to decide what to do next. What's the difference between unwind and unravel, anyway? I crochet, so it seems like I have been unraveling my entire life (some of it very knotty), with all this time to think and read and reflect. So now I am taking the time to roll it into a ball that I can use to make what I want of it. To create something new with it.
One last thing that took my breath away today, a quote from tut.com:
Life, Suzette, is not what you see, but what you've projected. It's not what you've felt, but what you've decided. It's not what you've experienced, but how you've remembered it. It's not what you've forged, but what you've allowed. And it's not who's appeared, but who you've summoned.

Oh, and did I mention the view of this new place? You can see across the horizon and waaay back there is the penninsula. It's amazing. And I can't wait to see the stars come out!!