Don't be afraid of your freedom

One of Dragon and Star's favourite songs :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yljbcRu3tiU

Four more sleeps til we start heading off. The letting agent has the keys, the tenants have a moving in date and have paid their deposit.

Our generator has arrived.

We've got a campsite booked for Thursday night, a puppy crate arriving here on Monday and we'll pick up a collar, lead, food bowls and some toys at some point in the next couple of days ready to collect our new best friend on Thursday next week.

Last night I went out for a meal with a friend and tonight I'm off out again for a meal with more friends, tomorrow we say goodbye to the cousins, Sunday the grandparents, Monday more friends. Inbetween all of this we are packing stuff up, ticking things of our lists and preparing ourselves mentally for the move.

It's interesting how many people describe what we are doing as mad, brave, crazy, dangerous, foolish, reckless. Some with affection and maybe a scrap of admiration, others with outright disapproval. This is of course alongside a huge number of people who have been very positive and supportive but the negative reactions make me wonder. Why are people so challenged by what we want to do? 50, 60, 70  years ago we didn't have supermarkets, motorways, telephones, televisions, electricity in every home, indoor toilets, mains water. These things are a luxury, not a necessity. And luxuries as we all know come at a price - financial, physical or worst of all a sapping away of our time. Time is NOT money. Time is life. Frankly time is all we've got us humans. I read this poem last week, blue tacked to the wall in my friend's house. I'd never heard it before but it moved me and I want to share it:

I read of a man who stood to speak,
At the funeral of a Friend.
He referred to the dates on this tombstone,
From beginning ….to the end.

He noted that first, came his date of birth,
And spoke the following tears.
But he said what mattered most of all,
Was the dash in between those years.

For the dash represents,
All the time he spent alive on earth.
And how only those who loved him,
Know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own,
The cars, the house, the cash,
What matters most is how we live and love,
And how we spend our dash …
So think about this long and hard.
Are there things you’d like to change?

For you never know how much time is left,
That can still be rearranged.
If we could just slow down enough,
To consider what is true and real.

And always try to understand,
The way other people feel.
And be less quick to anger,
And show appreciation more,
And love the people in our lives,

Like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect,
And more often wear a smile …
Remembering that this special dash,
Might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read,
With your life’s actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say
And how your spent your dash?

Linda Ellis

So to answer those questions of how we will live it will be the same as everyone else; with uncertainty, with no real knowledge of how we'll pay the bills next year or even what those bills might be. But we'll have insurance - crops in the ground, livestock growing ready to feed us, trees growing ready to bear fruit or be chopped down for firewood. The sun will shine to dry our tears and our washing, the rain (I believe it sometimes rains on Rum ;)) will water our plants. Our needs will be few and as long as we get to laugh every single day I'll feel we've invested our dash wisely :)