From Housework to Hillsides: Take Me Home to the World
From Housework to Hillsides: Take Me Home to the World
On Saturday I did some light housework, made a big breakfast, opened a bottle of wine, and watched episodes of Planet Earth around some online socializing (I am sans cell phone for now).
On Sunday, I did some more online socializing, took a long shower, visited friends in a league at the bowling alley up the street as I do every Sunday, and came home to finish my bottle of wine with more Planet Earth ahead of me.
Bored yet? I will say I normally do much more around town with the hours I am given, but anyway...
On Monday I woke up, bickered rather than socialized, and prepared for a day of housework and content writing; but first, I let an email signaling a new blog post from my favorite female traveler distract me.
I can’t remember when I last took the time to pour over her fluid words and breathtaking photos of mountains and waterfalls in towns I couldn’t pronounce. A few paragraphs in, and my surroundings fell away, like canvas dropping from neutral-toned walls to reveal the salty mist and scratchy underbrush of grand adventures just beyond this concrete.
Honoring the spirit of the Rocky Mountains, 2016
I finished reading Stephanie’s latest post, from her laptop in Argentina to mine in Lakewood, Ohio, and begrudgingly set about my planned day.
Amidst heated Facebook dialogue, finding a vomit stain set in on my grandmother’s rug, and Swiffering the house as less-than-guilty feline eyes locked on the device that gathers their stray fur biweekly, I suddenly felt the need to run straight out of the door, out of this town and this country, and never look back.
What have I let my days become? I know that eventually I'll long to settle down and have a family, but for now I dream of lush fields with wild goats, and foreign pubs without a lick of English surrounding my naive ears. Despite this, my daily worries consist of dishes, cat hair, and a whole other basket of crap to fill space in this drawn-out make-believe story that isn't my real life.
I pretend this life fulfills me while I’m still here...
while I get to write anyway...
while I save money...
while I spend time at the same dive bars over and over...
while I continue to waste the time I have doing things I don’t care about.
Almost every day I ask myself am I happy yet?, and every time I feel like I’m getting closer, but I still feel gigantic oceans and continents away. Still, I remind myself that “happiness” is not a place nor a state of perfection, but an attitude. There is no such thing as a "normal" life, just one that follows the biggest dreams you have.
I am determined to break down these anxious city-life walls to discover this magnificent feeling of happiness already flourishing within me, waiting for the dawn to break with the whistle of a train or the hum of a plane that can take me out of this house, and take me home to the world.
Has someone inspired you to dream bigger? Don't forget to give them a shout-out in the comments below!
Rocky Mountains, Colorado, 2016