“Life is about living it. It’s the day to day living that takes place no matter where you are that is special.” Me 🙂
Today is my first day back from my Norway exploration with my question as a guide, “Should I move back to live there now that my daughters are grown?”
I’ll skip to this morning first. “Nooooooooo!!!!!!” I woke up screaming from a nightmare. In my dream I was fixing something in my house and thought that the new owners wouldn’t even know about the quirks in my home. When suddenly it dawned on me I had sold my home and the owners were moving in the next day. I felt the panic in my body. The despair. The deep down knowing I had made a mistake in my dream. The instant thoughts of how to take the sale back.
I woke up and much to my relief I was surrounded by my beloved pets Jiji and Carl. Snug in my parents’ old bedroom I had always wanted as mine but now decorated and arranged into an elegant master suite. I opened the windows to my favorite weather, it’s snowing. It’s gloriously beautiful. And unlike Norway, the snow is going to melt in a few days. The sun nearly always comes out and stays out for long hours every day, even in the winter.
On my trip, my friend Dave sent pictures of the ski slopes, the lake, the sunsets up here and my heart stopped. This mountain hamlet may not be Norway and may not be as dramatic with fjords and lakes and meadows, but it is still in fact beautiful. Having left my marriage town in Northern California, the town where I raised my children, has not been a regret. I knew, have always known, I have to have the four seasons and access to skiing and hiking within minutes.
Guess what? I have it! I see the slopes from my kitchen window and the National Forest is a mere three blocks from my home. And, if I can’t stand the weather, I get in the car and drive 1-3 hours and I’m in sunny, warm California.
So today despite the cat waking me up from being stuck at midnight on the top of my snowy roof howling for me to help him get down without sliding off the peak roof to his death (He’s OK. He made it.) and despite my dog needing to go out an hour later to go potty and despite waking up from a nightmare screaming that I didn’t want to sell the house, I’m happy! I’m happy to be home. This is HOME!
It may be in part because it’s familiar, maybe, but it’s here I want to do the day to day living. As I sat in my pajamas at my cousins house (for too many days I hate to admit) looking out the window watching the neighbors walk by going to work or coming from school–living–it was then that I realized it’s not about traveling to exotic places for me.
It’s community. It’s finding your right niche and your people. The people you want to be surrounded by, who make you smile. It’s about the simple things like skiing mid week, growing flowers in my garden, writing blogs and books, knitting, studying Norwegian, cooking delicious food and eating with friends. Camping!!!! Biking to town! That’s why I moved here to do all of these things surrounded by nature.
In Norway so many values align with mine. Outdoor life and living, environmentally minded, transportation efficiency, simple elegance in every day life such as clothing, furniture, and food. I love it there. It is in so many ways utopia with healthcare and openness to diversity and integration of this diversity into an inclusive culture. So much positive to say.
Before I left I saw the benefit of moving so I could travel all over Europe easily and for small snippets at a time. If I had to choose, I’d choose to live life fully daily doing what I love EVEN IF it isn’t the income that could afford continuous travel all over the world. I would rather have a full life with the home, community and environment with my own business.
As I walked accidentally into the teaching hall of a primary school, I saw cute little jackets and cubbies in the entry way, I heard the voices of laughter and learning, I saw a field trip under way when I realized my heart did not respond. The chapter of teaching is closed. I no longer wish to be front stage and center trying desperately to engage 30 students in a lesson that has been prescribed by the system for me to teach. Something created without student input who in fact is the clientele who should be inputting.
Lars Monsen is a Norwegian local nature enthusiast that most every Norwegian knows and watches weekly. He ventures out into the forests of Norway by himself for days and weeks at a time to learn from local scientists or historians about the environment. I felt such peace watching the incredible cinematography, looking at the simplicity of living off of and within nature. Warmth, peace, and the rightness of the world flooded over me. I looked at his way of making a living as the most perfect way to live and make an income.
OMG! I think about now what I want to do. I don’t want to teach about the flora and the fauna or estrangement or psychology self-help. I want to teach people to be. To connect to just being in natural environments. Soaking it in without great fanfare. Watching it snow. Watching it rain. Adapting to the environment. Interacting with animals (pet/human relationships like Jiji/Teddy). Watching birds, insects, lizards. OMG! It’s not the teaching through words. It’s the teaching through watching, feeling the nervous system come to peace by being one with nature.
I could do this in Big Bear, in Reno, in Yellowstone, in Norway, in Cuba-anywhere!