Thursday, July 07, 2011

Live Free


We've been asked so many questions during this short visit home: what's your favorite place?  Your scariest moment?  Your favorite dish? ... the list goes on.  But the most interesting question, perhaps, came from a very good friend of ours when he asked: "What is the biggest lesson you learned so far?"

I actually had to think about that one.  Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows that the lessons learned through this "journey" are great and vast. We have learned so much about ourselves, about life, about nature, about the universe...it's incredible, really.

So what is the greatest lesson we have learned?

After some thought, I finally answered: "I think the biggest thing I have learned is that - once you get away from land, once you shove off and are free from societal contraints - anything is possible".

Does that make sense?

Because it's true.  The minute Scott and I said goodbye to Chicago an entire world opened up to us.  Not just the physical world, but the figurative world as well; the world of opportunity.  We were now in a world where we were able to dream...and not only could we dream, but we could do so freely and without doubt.  Suddenly, it was not insane to imagine opening up a tiny marina in some tropical isle, or running a charter company in the Caribbean, or opening a hostel for wayward travelers or running a boutique sandwich shop in the islands...suddenly all those things that on land seemed silly and fruitless, held weight and possibility.  It's amazing to be thirty-two and still be dreaming what life will be like when I "grow up".  I mean, I am just getting started!

I don't know what it will take for you to see your dreams as something more, but you should do it.  It is an incredibly freeing way to live.  Scott and I feel like kids in a candy store who found a ten dollar bill on the floor.  It's like nobody knows our secret, yet it's so simple and easy.  How come we have this ten dollars when so many people don't?  There really is power in dreaming.  There really is another way to live.  There really is a way to live a life less ordinary.  You just need to step aside and extricate yourself from the status quo, it's designed to keep you there!  Easier for some than for others, for sure.  But I am a firm believer that where there is a will, there is a way.

And that is the best lesson of all; we have learned what it feels like to be free!

Love,
Brittany & Scott

4 comments:

  1. We totally agree and can not wait to join ya'll in freedom! So many of us are raised to think of living one way, yet there are so many other alternatives. It took us a while to figure it out, but now our eyes are wide open!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I fully agree with your sentiments and wish I could knock off 30 years and follow your dreams-my own
    Grayson

    ReplyDelete
  3. Couldn't one have that same freedom in your home country, on land? I agree that most people only find that freedom by cutting loose but cutting loose it the method of discovery, not a necessity for the freedom.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @ s/v Estrellita - Agreed, but I never said that living free meant you had to live on a boat at sea in a foreign country - I was stating that, for us, breaking free from our "normal" life and living our "dream" was what gave US tremendous freedom. This blog is always written about *our* experience and I have no doubt that another person could attain the same type of freedom we have while on land.

    ReplyDelete

Have something to say? Feel free to comment! We love to hear from you! Unfortunately, slow internet combined with three little ones means I might not be able to comment back. But, either way, I love to hear from you all. Note: Negative comments with no purpose but to antagonize will be deleted with out a second thought.