As we grow older, the horizon begins to fade away

As I mentioned before, many people now ask where we live, not where we're from. It's still a cool feeling, I'll admit. But we do, of course, meet other vacationers and we make small talk, like on Wednesday nights when we hit the local mall to watch the free musicians/hula dancers. We met the father of a young family from Port Moody BC, who is going through all the same stresses and life experiences that we have gone through in the past five years, and our conversation with him is the inspiration for this entry.

While the small talk ensues (with whomever we might be chatting), they are nodding, anticipating our answer to the standard small talk question of "How long are you here"; and we say 6 months, they do a rather exaggerated double-take. The subsequent facial reactions to our reasons for doing it range the spectrum from incredulous, doubtful staring to a knowing, admiring smile. It's the people that do the latter, that get it.

The "get-it" refers to those who know that this decision had very little to do with sitting and relaxing on a beach drinking rum (not to say that we don't do that). And now, with 6 weeks into this excursion, I can't say that I haven't thought about money issues and possible loss of position in my career. The plummeting Canadian dollar, world market freefalls and recent layoffs in my old company made me do a more subtle double-take. But a few minutes later, I shook my head and remembered the purpose to doing this...

To reconnect with my partner, my children and myself.

Anyone who has a job, kids, spouse, friends knows that the minutiae of life often gets in the way of that feeling of connectedness. Those profound times that you remember you had when you were younger, greener, when there was so much to learn; moments that one just doesn't seem to have so often anymore. So, at the risk of sounding flaky, either to our friends or strangers, the re-discovery of those connections is the reason we did this.

I'm not putting myself out there as some sort of model for the way to live life. I know I've mucked up situations in my life many times, and I may very well be doing that again now. However, if by talking about our reasons behind our very small adventures, it inspires even this one person in a Wailea mall to make a profound change in their life, then I'd be pretty damn happy. And the world would be a happier place for it, too. Some of you know that the title of this post quotes a local, by the name of Jack Johnson. When I first heard this song, we had already made our decision to do this, but listening to the lyrics in that song cements it to this day.

I'm 99% sure that the money and position-in-life issues will be looked after - somehow. And it's not like we've simply thrown our future to the fates. As many of you know, we're rather pragmatic, anal-retentive, planners by nature. We did and continue to do things to help this adventure happen. And at the end of the day, for the people that had that incredulous, doubtful stare - I think it's those things that they're curious about. For them, maybe I'll write another blog or book or something on that part - the nuts and bolts of taking your young, average, middle-class family on a mini-retirement. The mini-retirement being somewhere between the annual-trip-to-somewhere-warm-with-a-pool and vagabonding. It's attainable; it takes a bit of planning, some room on a line of credit and a willingness to take a chance.

To quote another song, please don't let me be misunderstood. I know that there's a whole lot of folks who are in absolutely no position to do this. I'm not so egobound that I don't recognize that, and I am most thankful for the good fortune in my life. But for the middle class folks that I meet here or at home, it is possible. Possible to reconnect with that same feeling we had when we were young, or that we normally reserve for 2 weeks out of a year. And then, when we go home, we won't let the horizon fade away.