“You’re going to do what?” my sister cried through the phone when I told her that we were moving from the beach in Del Mar CA to the mountains of Whitefish MT. She finished urging, “Don’t tell anybody because they will lock you up as a crazy person!”
Twenty years ago, my husband, Joe and I, had heard “adventure” calling us to break out of our predictable life leaving 4 million of our closest friends on the clogged freeways in CA to discover the “simple life” in MT.
The simple life is one of authenticity. As I was born and raised, I developed into a “guilt sponge” absorbing all the “shoulds” and expectations of others.
There are some tell tale signs that you are not living the “simple life”. As a “guilt sponge”, I felt I had to pleaseothers, be perfect, andperformas expected. And in order to measure up to high “guilt sponge” standards, I found myself pretendingsituations weren’t so, and procrastinatingthe difficult decisions. Sound familiar?
With the focus on pleasing others, we build prison walls around ourselves. The walls limit our gain of personal freedom and happiness, living for others and thus losing all one’s authenticity.
I guess the pull that I felt to move to the “simple life” was the call to be brave, courageous and authentic.
“The greatest challenge in life is to be our own person and accept that being different is a blessing and not a curse. A person who knows who they are lives a simple life by eliminating from their orbit anything that does not align with his or her overriding purpose and values. A person must be selective with their time and energy because both elements of life are limited.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls
There are often many things we feel we should do that, in fact, we don’t really have to do. We need to get to the point where we can tell and live the difference.
So no matter where you are right now you have to honor your own journey, finding what makes your soul sing. Find your passion and follow your bliss.
Whether it’s the beach or the mountains, your inner GPS will direct you home. Listen….you may have to “redirect”.
