Vacation!

I just got back from spending a couple of days with two of my friends from the Folk Fest somewhere in central New Jersey. Alice bought a condemned house last year and since Dan moved in with her they are getting really close to being able to live in the house legally. They are working their way through the reconstruction and getting all the inspections and stuff. Won't be long before they don't have to live in a tent hidden off in the back woods anymore.

As for the back woods...HOLY SHIT!
Along with the tiny broken down old house (that is really looking cute now that it has a roof and stuff) for her $73,000 she got about 8 acres of beautiful land in the middle of nowhere. She can't build on it because it's some kind of wildlife preserve or something. Which is the coolest thing ever in my book. It's really incredible all the plants and animals and stuff that are running around in the largest room in her house. Someone told her this is some rare wetlands plant that she shouldn't really touch. What an amazing flower!

Anyway, the point was about taking a mental vacation. Letting the world fall away for a little while.
And how that rarely happens for me where I live now. And I know that whole thing about being happy where you are and changes like that not fixing things...but I would tend to disagree. I used to spend a lot of time in the woods and I remember those days as being a lot more creative and in many ways less stressful that life as it is here. Even when it was having to walk to a giant park the years I didn't live right in the woods I still spent a lot of time with mother nature. I don't do that here. There is one park I can walk to about 15 minutes away but it's pretty small and the road to get there is treacherous, sharp curves with stone walls in stead of shoulders and everyone drives way too fast.
There is just something to be said for the effect being off in the woods has on one's brain. Being around trees and plants in stead of cars and buildings.
I'm already planning my next trip back there...next time I'm not setting my tent up on the back lawn...I'm taking the lawnmower into the woods and carving out a good spot for myself tucked back off the paths (that my crazy friends mow every week or two) that are carved through the property.
It was funny watching all of us city folk arrive with wide-eyed amazement and by the second day genuinely trying to figure out how we could take the rottweiler they are dog sitting home with us and how we could keep bantam chickens in our yards.
It's time to move. There's a better life waiting out there somewhere. And it's about time to let my present and my past carry me into that future.

And lets not (yet) even talk about the most recent revelation that I'm actually lucky as hell to have done all the different things I have done in my lifetime...especially if we only get one. So what if I'm unemployable! I have gotten to do such a wide variety of things and meet such diverse groups of people. The other part of the key I think I latched onto while my mind was clearing it's self out in the woods is that I realized how lucky I am to have moved around as much as I did getting to see all those different places and ways of life...maybe that's why I know what I really want as far as where I want to live for my next house....my home. Or home base...from which the world exploration will happen.

Yup...time spent outside enjoying the world and one's surroundings.
Nothing like it.