Tiny Cabin Motivation

What is it that motivates us to do what we are doing … to go from dreaming and theorizing about a thing to actually doing the thing dreamed of?

The closest thing to a one line answer would probably be something like … Our philosophy of life has evolved to the point that it is the only reasonable thing that we can do.

The italicized answer makes sense and is good enough for those that have already worked through all the issues and levels necessary to simmer things down to a life-philosophy answer. For those that haven't exercised themselves in working through the issues and levels, the italicized answer … the life-philosophy thing … is kind of out there in left field and doesn't provide much of an answer; though the life-philosophy thing is honestly the ultimate answer.

Our own points of personal evolution are the product of years, decades of years, of personal processing, establishing priorities, refining interests, and storing away volumes of useful retrospect as personal frames of reference. We have discovered, in the aforementioned processing, a lot of motivation.

The past few years, and especially the past year, we have refused to allow anything or anyone to cause our sights to drift off the target. It has required a great deal of discipline on our part. It has not been easy. It has been well worth it but not at all easy.

There are a few major issues that must be addressed where an adventure such as this is concerned. The primary issue ... a question that must be met with a satisfactory answer ... is, What do we prefer to be doing with our lives?

I use we in the question.

We, under this roof, happen to be a we ... there are two of us involved in this adventure. Single people have only an I to decide for. Anyone with a spouse or partner becomes a we situation with we challenges. A we situation with dependent children becomes another situation altogether … not an impossible one but one with other sets of challenges.

I mentioned earlier that, where something like this involves a we, there has to be a lot of agreement. Walking in agreement necessarily involves making compromises. One of the fortunate things, where this we is concerned, is that we share a lot of similar interests. Our personalities are different. We're a Pisces and a Scorpio. One is an Alabama Pisces boy and one is a Jersey Scorpio girl. We have, where two individuals are concerned, a good many differences.

Differences can be complementary provided there are shared life-interests that reach farther than the relational utilitarianism involved in keeping house, raising children, and going on an occasional vacation. Our necessary compromises have never centered upon relational matters. Their aim has been, and remains, always focused upon effectively placing shots within the ten-ring regardless the distance of the target downrange.

We prefer having the freedom to happily follow our dreams and interests. This is especially important to us now as we enter into what some have referred to as the autumn years of life.

Freedom isn't free.

There are costs involved. The associated costs aren't really sacrifices. They are more along the lines of trade-offs that have a way of forming sinew and muscle on the bare skeleton wired together in the coined phrase less is more. In architecture and in life. Less is more. This less is more thing is something that we have long embraced in theory. Only as we have actually invested ourselves in it have we honestly begun to realize the truth contained therein.

We prefer to be happy and at ease.

Not as an occasional thing snatched at with the leftovers of life and personal resources but, rather, as a lifestyle. Happiness and ease, for us, involves not only downsizing to this small cabin. It also involves the freedom to take Fred (our camping van) on long leisurely rides to who knows where for who knows how long. We have dear friends, family, and grandchildren that we'd like to visit. There are sights, sunrises, and sunsets to see while we are yet able.

We have, at this point in our adventure, begun part-timing at the cabin.

There are still a number of things to do to apply the finishing touches to things at both ends of the county. There are things to be done to finish closing down where we've lived and called home for the past 12 years. 12 years is a lot of accumulation. We have, despite all the variables and uncertainties involved in pulling this thing off within our desired time frame, managed to keep things either in the ten-ring or right on the edge of it.

There are still things to do to put the finishing touches on the cabin. Call it an inhabitable work in progress. Mostly interior cosmetic stuff and screening the small front porch to create a mosquito-free spot to sit. We'll be whittling on these as we go along.

There is a very definite learning curve involved in an adventure such as this.

Figured into this curve is a wide stretch that has to do with learning to relax after those decades of running pillar to post and back again. Relaxation. Honest to goodness relaxation. Not the weekend version of it or the annual off the clock version of it; even if the off the clock version comes as paid absence. We're all familiar with those versions of it, versions that always include a too soon Monday morning and a time clock.

This version?

This version is different. It is strange and unfamiliar. This version, at least what we have experienced of it in our part-timing, will take some acclimation. Life lived on the time clock, or constantly doing routines of time and energy demanding chores, doesn't incorporate this version into anyone's personal frame of reference.