Old Fools Journal: Staying Put

Oh how I envy those who are in the place they want to be and know it as the place they are supposed to be. -tom swaim

The adventure of "staying put" is new to me. At least if the last 17 years is new, 15 of which was full of travel. After living in that temporary dwelling for 8 years it became a fixed place that I had lived in longer than any place before, except for my boat, and it was not fixed. The travel was long ranging first by truck then by air with enough adrenaline thrown in to keep an old adrenaline junkie going. It also fooled me into thinking I was still temporary. What is testing me now is reading the post of all the younger people (and some not so younger, you know who you are) who are questioning the status quo and starting to take the "road less traveled by*". I am having a hard time realizing that I have already taken the "road less traveled by" several times and that now the "road less traveled by " is "staying put". Perhaps "staying put" is not a road but it is certainly less traveled for me.

The problem with staying put is finding a place you like. For me it has been finding a place I dislike less than others then adjusting my thinking (justifying) my choice. By the time you discover that where you are is not paradise and that you have many places in your past that were more like your idea of paradise it's too late. The piles of stuff such as plants, stray dogs, grand kids and a fondness for immobile living things (trees, gardenias, worm pile, etc) become an anchor embedded in the mud that you love more than you dislike. The anchor chain becomes a chain of velvet that you no longer fight and resentment of it dwindles to a dim memory.

So not knowing what to do you set about trying to change some of the things you don't like only to discover you are changing yourself and not your surroundings. Thus the adventure begins.

My thanks to Northmark for the phrase "staying put" and it being an adventure.

*The Road Not Taken -Robert Frost