Hello! It’s been a while since we’ve checked in. Today, as we sail somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, I celebrate another birthday. It’s hard to believe it has been almost a year and a half since Kristi and I made the leap to quit our jobs and take hold of the reigns of our freedom. A lot of things can happen in a year. Winston Churchill would be proud of us as he once said, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” I have to say, many things have changed for us since retiring, some planned and many unexpected!
Today we are actually headed back to New York City after cruising to Bermuda where, unfortunately, we were on a collision course with hurricane Tammy…nice timing! We arrived in Bermuda on Wednesday morning; excited to visit a new island for us. The seas were really choppy and the ship had been rocking all night. It was windy, and not all that warm. But, the captain and crew were doing their best to make it happen despite rapidly changing conditions. The previous day, the crew had already announced a change to our time in port…with it having to be shortened to stay ahead of the storm, but we were going to make it to Bermuda! Any adjustments were all for our safety, of course. As we awaited our arrival, people gathered around the ship, chattering about their plans, still excited, dressed in flip flops, swimsuits, and with beach towels in tow. We could all see the beautiful island through the windows as we approached, when the captain’s voice came over the intercom letting us know they were working with the local officials to get us to port, but weather conditions were continuing to change, so please be patient. Our arrival time came and went. Excitement turned to nervousness and impatience. The PA dinged and a silence fell over the ship as we all listened intently to the update. Captain Enzo, our awesome Italian captain, in his somewhat broken English, calmly and stoically announced that the Bermudan officials were concerned about the storm and our ability to port and be able to leave safely the next day. They were denying us access…and we were going to have to skip the port! This was a huge turn of events because this was just a 5-day cruise with an overnight, 2-day stop at Bermuda being the ONLY port. The hush lulled for a moment as reality set in. For most, long-planned vacation plans were suddenly erased, future sunny memories dashed before they occurred, and a feeling of time wasted washed over them. The silence was broken by groans, murmuring, and cursing with lots of blank stares wondering, “what now?” The majority, of course, understood it was for everyone’s safety, but some were angry…at fate, chance, whomever, whatever. All understandable, but nothing could be done at this point. I was introduced years ago to a neat little book titled “Who Moved My Cheese,” by Spencer Johnson. It’s about two mice who live in a maze to which they have become very accustomed to daily life, when one day their cheese had been moved. The two mice deal with the event in different ways. One is upset and scared and the other deals with it much more positively. We, as people, have the same two options when life throws us a curve. I personally like the author’s take, who says, “Life moves on and so should we.” In our situation, fortunately, it is easy for us to move on since we are on the next cruise as well, we don’t have to get back to work, and any financial fallout is negligible. Those who have to go back to work, back to the grind, understandably, are distraught. I truly feel for them, but rest assured, you can always bet that “Everything changes but change itself.” (John F. Kennedy)
Sometimes change just happens, naturally, without our control or desire. It happens to us personally and all around us. I’m not just another year older, but fatter, slower, grayer, creakier, and sometimes more stubborn and less tolerant. Don’t get me wrong, I’m only 57; it’s not like I’m reaching for a walker. We’re still trekking all over the world, visiting lots of foreign places and experiencing local cultures, which is exactly why we did the things needed to retire in our mid-50s to begin with. It’s just that actions and movement oftentimes now seem to involve conscious thought, not just simple impulse. Our bodies are definitely not timeless vessels, nor do they have money-back guarantees. I’ve also heard that no one is promised tomorrow, but as we age, I believe it can be a sort of gamble with fate or chance as far as our health is concerned. I, myself, need to do a better job of taking care of my “temple.” Something else we often feel are beyond our personal control are the changes in the world around us. Constantly changing political ideologies and squabbling, wars, and confrontations seem to be the norm across the globe and we feel like we individually have little we can do to make a difference. Hopefully, someday, some way sensibility will prevail.
Often, however, change is within our own control, and understanding this is a two-way street, for better OR worse. It may be needed, for our own good, our health, or maybe for one’s sanity. We can usually make these things happen with routines, or sometimes with great effort. Sadly, we also allow change to happen without even realizing it (often bad). We can make changes in temperament or attitudes, we change jobs, our ways, our diets, our clothes, the clocks twice a year, the sheets on the bed, hairstyles (which neither of us has done for many, many years), directions, skill sets, beliefs, people in our lives, and we often change our minds, which, as I said before, we have done a lot of this last year and a half.
At the beginning of 2022, after planning for several years, we were finally debt-free and sold the two houses we owned to our kids, moved in to our 40’ fifth wheel RV and made ready to end our working lives to travel, which was still a few months away. In the fall of 2022, newly retired, we set off on an 80-day trip, spanning a good chunk of the globe. Our plan was to travel in our RV by land to experience our country and cruise by sea to see the world. Somewhere along the way, our plans started to change. Kristi’s mother became ill, diagnosed with cancer. We were hopeful, but things worsened quickly beyond our wildest fears. Thankfully, we returned home mere days before she passed, the day before Thanksgiving. After months of talking about the future as we traveled, and several conversations with Kristi’s sister, Wendi, we made a huge transition in thinking and our plans. We decided to change our way of life and travel. We sold our RV and the truck with which we pulled it…for more than we had paid for each 4 years earlier, I might add. Wendi invited us to come stay with her, as she had plenty of room with enough space for our very limited remaining possessions and a garage for our car. This would now serve as our home base while we traveled. Coming up on almost one year, this living arrangement is going splendidly, in our opinion. Obviously, this has changed our way of life in many ways. We’ve reorganized our living budget for the better. We naturally are more conscious of what we buy (if anything, just because we realize we don’t NEED a lot of the junk we once thought we did, and really have nowhere to put it anyway!). We’ve both read more books, watch more tv shows we previously had no time for, have become less judgmental of those who choose different ways of doing things (despite the comment earlier of being less tolerant), we spend more time outdoors, have become more adventurous, are less stressed, sleep more, and are happier to be experiencing life in general. We still have many experiences and much traveling planned in the near future. I know everyone has different circumstances, but as we have iterated often before, as have many, many others, we wish we would have made this possible and done this even earlier.
Whether or not we can do anything about Change, or it’s cousin, the Great Betrayer (also known as Time), WE choose to move forward and take things in stride to the best of our ability. There are still so many things to look forward to and for which to live life to the fullest. I very much think I’d like to live by the words of the timeless Dr. Seuss, “Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.”
Mike – October 26, 2023