Endless travel but it's spectacular
Ten years ago I stopped commuting from one municipality to another on a daily basis, and was shocked to realize how much time and energy I had. Living and working in the same time space continuum had a rejuvenating effect, and I vowed I would never go back to that commuter world. I had my life back, I felt like me, and people didn't look at me like I was crazy. For the past two years, I've lived and worked in the downtown core, walking 15 minutes between. Once you've done that, it is very hard to think of living any other way. It spoils you for anything else, or so I thought.
I have since relocated to SuperNatural, the Best Place on Earth, ( and heaven knows there will be more monickers in years to come) where quality of life is everything. Meeting people here is odd, because it takes me a while to realize that the " what do you do?" is actually about what do you like to do ( activity, sports, hobby, passion) not what do you do as work. Where you live and what you do as your passion is what counts; it's understood that the other thing ( work) is secondary, and your ultimate happiness depends on the passion, and of course, the location.
I am commuting on a weekly basis, and that holds some sanity as opposed to the daily grind. During the week I walk to my office ten minutes away, in a new version of a new downtown. On weekends I travel home , but I am travelling through some of the most dramatic sea and mountain scapes ever. At first it was profoundly rivetting and distracting; I couldn't sleep or read or relax, I studied every inch of the panorama as it whizzed by. Today I got swept up in the tourist buzz, and put down my reading to absorb another sunset, a shimmering lake, a cavernous mountain pass; I think I'm gradually assimilating. I've put the go-go-go pace behind me ( most of the time), and stopping to take a look around, and realize how lucky I am. I am living close to loved ones, doing something I am good at and care about, and learning to live a little more deeply everyday. Those pauses that Mother Nature instills are botanical or geographic yield signs, and I'm learning the rules of this new road.
