I so needed to read this today as life is definitely happening to me and it is scary AND fabulous.
Almost 2 years ago on my birthday in April I bought a motorhome with a view to reducing most of my possessions, putting the remaining items in storage while I figure out if motorhome living is for me. The plan was to move into said motorhome in the September.
The motorhome was a such a gift. At the time (early 2021) there was nothing on the market as people unable to travel internationally so choosing local holiday options. Second hand ones were rare and expensive. New ones beyond my budget and a 2-3 year wait. I had all but given up but scrolling through a website site over Easter, there she was. 10 years old and only 26000km. Immaculate. And in an instant, I knew she was mine. Like a kick in the gut.
2 months later I was diagnosed with cancer. All plans off the table for a year. A year became 18 months. Then 22 months. Chemo. Multiple bouts of shingles. Chronic fatigue. My dream seemed to be further and further away.
Then life happened to me again.
I had this little dream that maybe, just maybe I could get into the motorhome by April this year. 2 years after I bought her. But the logical, sensible voice was saying ‘don’t put such pressure on yourself, you haven’t been well, you aren’t that strong anymore...’.
And then the most amazing thing happened. I got notice to vacate my rental by 23 Apr so will be in the motorhome by the 2 year anniversary. I was a little shocked the first night, sad the next day and then excited. I know I can do this.
I was already moving to Ballarat for the latter half of the year to look after a friends 5 acre property and didn’t want to really pay rent while away. And now I won’t.
Sometimes we just need that little push. I have no idea where motorhome living will lead. I just know deep down it is what I need to do. It is my alternative version of tiny house living.
I work 5 days a week as an IT professional with at least one day a week onsite. A very different scenario to the usual grey nomad travelling around Australia. Although at 57 I fit the age demographic. I also fit the fastest growing homeless demographic. Unlike some of my friends who had no choice but to move into their vans or motorhomes, I am choosing this mobile lifestyle. Perhaps I will have some sort of voice in this arena.
Not paying rent allows me to pay for additional healthcare not covered by medical insurance and save extra for when I am older and really need it.
I am opening up to more of life happening. I too have felt stuck and unhappy and when I am in my motorhome, I am so happy. I named her Gemima. It means peaceful earth mother. She is like a warm womb where something is to be birthed. I don’t know what. I don’t need to know. I just need to take the first step. Then the next.
A friend told me that when she looked at me she felt as if a Phoenix was rising from the ashes. The past 5 years have felt like a thorough burning down of what I thought was solid and real, including a belief in who I am so my friends comment resonates with me.
Here’s to more opening to life so it can happen to us.
I loved reading this. All of it. I picked up on that niggling doubt that you shouldn't do wacky things when you've unwell etc...In the past 12 months I've realised that extending myself actually results in so much more energy. Putting on breaks is more exhausting than joining the flow. Enjoy your next adventure...it doesn't have to be forever...x
Dear Sarah, this is an older article but I hope you still pick this one up. Can you talk more about doing things when you're unwell (or when you feel unwell)? And how doing things is more energising than not (doing things)? This is something I've often grappled with in life x
Oh my goodness. Thank you Sarah for writing this. Recently I'v also found that I'm gripping everything to tightly, which leads me to a place where I find everything is.......grey. I'm not fired up and I try to plan everything to the endth degree which is just simply exhausting. I love the phrase "letting life flow through you", its lets me know that you can just accept where you are and you can just make space for being.
Also, I hope your move and change nourishes you like you need. This article has also encouraged me to be open to moving overseas (for university exhange) for a short period of time and to just "see what happens" rather than trying to organise and plan everything, so thankyou :)
Good grief you’re a woman after my heart and freakily on a similar journey it would appear... jumping everyday into unknown territory this year... wild precious and terrifyingly possible. All of it. If I may offer you another Viginia-ism (because one can never have too many)...
I can get a writer's visa to stay there (yep, the have a special visa for established writers), I love their philosophy around consumption, I have big conversations (not banter!) when I"m in France, I get asked out by good, interesting men when I'm there (get met with good masculinity).
Synchronicity. A friend unveiled this concept to me at a time when I needed understanding and hope. I started to bump into people that provided insight and opportunities for a new me because I wasn’t attaching so desperately to control stuff in my life circumstances anymore. I began visiting the beach weekdays early in the morning before work, throwing myself into the cold water and giving myself to the universe. If you give yourself breathing space you become aware of the “coincidences” in your life around you. Since those days I have found stillness and a nice friendship with myself. I found love and have made big changes without fear, because life is now an adventure again.
I am learning to not question the “bad stuff” or the uncertainty. It’s a process.
I feel you Sarah ! You are an inspiration to me. . . Just don’t forget to breathe. Love Jen Xx
You have picqued my interest with the cells lying dormant - that feels so true that we can be alive but with so much of us not taking part. Are you able to share the research your reference?
So much in this. I will reflect on it for a little while but I'm with you regarding "life happening to us". Though we can believe that we make life happen. But ask our Kiwi friends or those in Turkey and Syria ...
Paris ... ha! my favourite city. There's a fascinating soul in Paris that I'm drawn to repeatedly.
Go well ... we'll miss your spirit hovering near us but appreciate that you do so often find greater meaning and purpose when you fly off and make yourself available to life. Holding you up always, my friend. xx
Love how you model diving into the fast-flowing river of life, instead of digging your heels into the banks and hanging out with complacency and mediocrity and all those nice safe things we’re encouraged to covet. Travel and change is so good for the soul, and Paris is glorious! Can’t wait to hear more.
Just discovered you! ...just downloaded Amazon music to access your podcast (after searching for you on sticher). I have “yes” on my altar, made from a child’s wood-letter blocks... just said yes spontaneously to an adventure in Maui, that will include Bonnie Raitt’s ‘just like that’ ...
I like to think that I can go wherever I like, even when I can't (which is most of the time). If there's one thing that rings true for me it's that little Ol' me is best suited to instinctively (let's say intuitively) following whatever path I feel is best, for me or for anyone and anything, at any given moment (...OK, says he whose planner is full months in advance). And it just feels right; I don't question it too deeply. I try to put myself out there, even when it's in here, to find my way amongst it and then back to someplace called home.
Loved reading this Sarah and how brave you are, I will be retiring this year and secretly I wonder what life will throw at me, I have a great family and friends and lots hobbies and interests yet I am secretly scared. I will be 66 in June and I have worked since I was 15.
A jolt of electricity pass through as I read the words "becoming more alive and congruent with the truth of life, and being less distracted". I read this sitting back in Australia, a 48 year old single woman who has been outside Aus for the greater part of 20 years (Barcelona, Asia and Mexico). My intention for living abroad was always to allow more of life to happen, more stories to be told, so these can be shared. I somewhat embarrassingly use a hashtag #morelife when sharing stories from life elsewhere. However returning to Aus, and staying far longer than planned due to health needs, I'm contemplating much in the haze that is return culture shock. Eg. Are we at our best when we go out into the world with head, heart, hand safely grounded in a base amongst what is so familiar? Thank you for your substack as reading and listening to you here is providing great reflections and thoughts that are so poignant and hard to find. Merci
My partner and I have bit the bullet and we are going to work and travel our way around Australia in 2024! One of the HUGEST decisions of my life EVER!!! I love job security, routine and having some $$$$ in the bank and this is ALL about to change. We will be 44 and 41 years of age, quitting our jobs. putting out house up for rent and driving off into the sunset! :)
We will finish work, have the house packed up and rented out in March 2024. We head to Canada, Alaska, Sweden and possibly Tokyo for 5 weeks and then when we get back, the ute and camper will be waiting for us all packed up and ready to go!
I have no idea what is in store for us over the next few years but overly excited to find out what happens and hoping this will be the break needed to re-energize us and get us ready to smash out the remainder of our 2nd chapter! BRING IT ON!!!
I so needed to read this today as life is definitely happening to me and it is scary AND fabulous.
Almost 2 years ago on my birthday in April I bought a motorhome with a view to reducing most of my possessions, putting the remaining items in storage while I figure out if motorhome living is for me. The plan was to move into said motorhome in the September.
The motorhome was a such a gift. At the time (early 2021) there was nothing on the market as people unable to travel internationally so choosing local holiday options. Second hand ones were rare and expensive. New ones beyond my budget and a 2-3 year wait. I had all but given up but scrolling through a website site over Easter, there she was. 10 years old and only 26000km. Immaculate. And in an instant, I knew she was mine. Like a kick in the gut.
2 months later I was diagnosed with cancer. All plans off the table for a year. A year became 18 months. Then 22 months. Chemo. Multiple bouts of shingles. Chronic fatigue. My dream seemed to be further and further away.
Then life happened to me again.
I had this little dream that maybe, just maybe I could get into the motorhome by April this year. 2 years after I bought her. But the logical, sensible voice was saying ‘don’t put such pressure on yourself, you haven’t been well, you aren’t that strong anymore...’.
And then the most amazing thing happened. I got notice to vacate my rental by 23 Apr so will be in the motorhome by the 2 year anniversary. I was a little shocked the first night, sad the next day and then excited. I know I can do this.
I was already moving to Ballarat for the latter half of the year to look after a friends 5 acre property and didn’t want to really pay rent while away. And now I won’t.
Sometimes we just need that little push. I have no idea where motorhome living will lead. I just know deep down it is what I need to do. It is my alternative version of tiny house living.
I work 5 days a week as an IT professional with at least one day a week onsite. A very different scenario to the usual grey nomad travelling around Australia. Although at 57 I fit the age demographic. I also fit the fastest growing homeless demographic. Unlike some of my friends who had no choice but to move into their vans or motorhomes, I am choosing this mobile lifestyle. Perhaps I will have some sort of voice in this arena.
Not paying rent allows me to pay for additional healthcare not covered by medical insurance and save extra for when I am older and really need it.
I am opening up to more of life happening. I too have felt stuck and unhappy and when I am in my motorhome, I am so happy. I named her Gemima. It means peaceful earth mother. She is like a warm womb where something is to be birthed. I don’t know what. I don’t need to know. I just need to take the first step. Then the next.
A friend told me that when she looked at me she felt as if a Phoenix was rising from the ashes. The past 5 years have felt like a thorough burning down of what I thought was solid and real, including a belief in who I am so my friends comment resonates with me.
Here’s to more opening to life so it can happen to us.
I loved reading this. All of it. I picked up on that niggling doubt that you shouldn't do wacky things when you've unwell etc...In the past 12 months I've realised that extending myself actually results in so much more energy. Putting on breaks is more exhausting than joining the flow. Enjoy your next adventure...it doesn't have to be forever...x
Dear Sarah, this is an older article but I hope you still pick this one up. Can you talk more about doing things when you're unwell (or when you feel unwell)? And how doing things is more energising than not (doing things)? This is something I've often grappled with in life x
Oh my goodness. Thank you Sarah for writing this. Recently I'v also found that I'm gripping everything to tightly, which leads me to a place where I find everything is.......grey. I'm not fired up and I try to plan everything to the endth degree which is just simply exhausting. I love the phrase "letting life flow through you", its lets me know that you can just accept where you are and you can just make space for being.
Also, I hope your move and change nourishes you like you need. This article has also encouraged me to be open to moving overseas (for university exhange) for a short period of time and to just "see what happens" rather than trying to organise and plan everything, so thankyou :)
Good luck...keep it playful!
Good grief you’re a woman after my heart and freakily on a similar journey it would appear... jumping everyday into unknown territory this year... wild precious and terrifyingly possible. All of it. If I may offer you another Viginia-ism (because one can never have too many)...
“there is no denying the wild horse in us.
Ain’t that the truth. See you in Paris!
Sarah, can you tell us why Paris is the planned destination?
I can get a writer's visa to stay there (yep, the have a special visa for established writers), I love their philosophy around consumption, I have big conversations (not banter!) when I"m in France, I get asked out by good, interesting men when I'm there (get met with good masculinity).
Sounds like a strong choice. Thank you for elaborating 😊
Synchronicity. A friend unveiled this concept to me at a time when I needed understanding and hope. I started to bump into people that provided insight and opportunities for a new me because I wasn’t attaching so desperately to control stuff in my life circumstances anymore. I began visiting the beach weekdays early in the morning before work, throwing myself into the cold water and giving myself to the universe. If you give yourself breathing space you become aware of the “coincidences” in your life around you. Since those days I have found stillness and a nice friendship with myself. I found love and have made big changes without fear, because life is now an adventure again.
I am learning to not question the “bad stuff” or the uncertainty. It’s a process.
I feel you Sarah ! You are an inspiration to me. . . Just don’t forget to breathe. Love Jen Xx
Everything is a coincidence, right. But when we are open and available we notice them...and see the joy of it all
You have picqued my interest with the cells lying dormant - that feels so true that we can be alive but with so much of us not taking part. Are you able to share the research your reference?
Hey Alex, I cite it in my book...and the ref is somewhere in here! https://www.sarahwilson.com/2020/08/one-wild-precious-life-science-source-references/
I'll try take a look when I get a moment.
So much in this. I will reflect on it for a little while but I'm with you regarding "life happening to us". Though we can believe that we make life happen. But ask our Kiwi friends or those in Turkey and Syria ...
Paris ... ha! my favourite city. There's a fascinating soul in Paris that I'm drawn to repeatedly.
Go well ... we'll miss your spirit hovering near us but appreciate that you do so often find greater meaning and purpose when you fly off and make yourself available to life. Holding you up always, my friend. xx
who is the fascinating soul? Introduce us! x
Poorly written any me, Sarah. Paris has a fascinating soul.
it does, Ian!
There's much in that :)
Breeeeaaathe..and let go.
Let. Go. With love xx
Love back atcha
Love how you model diving into the fast-flowing river of life, instead of digging your heels into the banks and hanging out with complacency and mediocrity and all those nice safe things we’re encouraged to covet. Travel and change is so good for the soul, and Paris is glorious! Can’t wait to hear more.
Love this - and oui to Paris!
I've lived here 4 years, life is always happening to me here 😄 Give us a shout if you need a friendly Aussie-settling-into-Paris ear
That's super kind of you!
Just discovered you! ...just downloaded Amazon music to access your podcast (after searching for you on sticher). I have “yes” on my altar, made from a child’s wood-letter blocks... just said yes spontaneously to an adventure in Maui, that will include Bonnie Raitt’s ‘just like that’ ...
Breathing into life! Thanks for sharing yours!
I like to think that I can go wherever I like, even when I can't (which is most of the time). If there's one thing that rings true for me it's that little Ol' me is best suited to instinctively (let's say intuitively) following whatever path I feel is best, for me or for anyone and anything, at any given moment (...OK, says he whose planner is full months in advance). And it just feels right; I don't question it too deeply. I try to put myself out there, even when it's in here, to find my way amongst it and then back to someplace called home.
Thank you - I really needed this reminder. And Paris! How fabulous. x
Loved reading this Sarah and how brave you are, I will be retiring this year and secretly I wonder what life will throw at me, I have a great family and friends and lots hobbies and interests yet I am secretly scared. I will be 66 in June and I have worked since I was 15.
A jolt of electricity pass through as I read the words "becoming more alive and congruent with the truth of life, and being less distracted". I read this sitting back in Australia, a 48 year old single woman who has been outside Aus for the greater part of 20 years (Barcelona, Asia and Mexico). My intention for living abroad was always to allow more of life to happen, more stories to be told, so these can be shared. I somewhat embarrassingly use a hashtag #morelife when sharing stories from life elsewhere. However returning to Aus, and staying far longer than planned due to health needs, I'm contemplating much in the haze that is return culture shock. Eg. Are we at our best when we go out into the world with head, heart, hand safely grounded in a base amongst what is so familiar? Thank you for your substack as reading and listening to you here is providing great reflections and thoughts that are so poignant and hard to find. Merci
Life is about to happen to me! YAY!! :)
My partner and I have bit the bullet and we are going to work and travel our way around Australia in 2024! One of the HUGEST decisions of my life EVER!!! I love job security, routine and having some $$$$ in the bank and this is ALL about to change. We will be 44 and 41 years of age, quitting our jobs. putting out house up for rent and driving off into the sunset! :)
We will finish work, have the house packed up and rented out in March 2024. We head to Canada, Alaska, Sweden and possibly Tokyo for 5 weeks and then when we get back, the ute and camper will be waiting for us all packed up and ready to go!
I have no idea what is in store for us over the next few years but overly excited to find out what happens and hoping this will be the break needed to re-energize us and get us ready to smash out the remainder of our 2nd chapter! BRING IT ON!!!