Living Outside the Box

It has been a long, long time since I posted on this blog. When I started it in November of 2010, my goal was to post once a day for a year, until my 40th birthday in October of 2011. Then in the spring of last year my life drastically changed direction and the blog took a very back seat, as some things are wont to do when priorities shift.

Since my last post I have moved to a new state, started working for the first time in ten years, and moved in with my parents. It's been five months now, and it's about time to move out, but the learning and growing that's gone on in the last five months has been~

Enlightening.
Incredible.
Invaluable.
Freeing.

This originated as a blog where, for the most part, I showcased things I'd made. Recipes, woodwork, re-purposing things I'd found at thrift stores, home decor, photographs I'd taken, etc. But moving into one room of your parents' house has a way of shifting the way you look at things. What I've learned about material possessions is how they muddle life up. They begin to own you instead of you owning them. They distract you from so many other things because you have to take care of them, protect them, clean them, and worry about them. I've spent the last five months quite content with only three "big" necessities: my clothes, my hiking and climbing gear, and a library card. Although in the last month or so some of my craft stuff - knitting supplies, paint, canvases, wood - has made it out of storage as well, as my need to be creative finally emerged and needed to be satiated.

But I have done most of my living outside of the "box" that is my room, or that was my house. Much of my free time has found me hiking or climbing in the mountains of my native Colorado.

(This was me yesterday).

My desire to head to thrift stores - which was something I did once or twice a week for years - has been non-existent since I moved, as has my desire to decorate or shop. My life is no longer lived mostly inside four walls - now I'm happiest when the walls that surround me are the mountains or cliffs that rise to hail the sky.

That being said, here's the addendum.

In ten days I will start the gradual process of moving out of my parents' house into an apartment. I've signed a 12-month lease, so it will be home for quite some time. There is certainly going to be a fair amount of setting up house/decorating going on. And I would be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to having my kitchen set up again, pulling out a few items I've really missed (like my Indian mirror), and excited beyond belief about the potential of the little patio off my bedroom.

I didn't plan to blog about it. Didn't plan to do anything more with this blog other than let it sit here and be archives. But then my friend Kim emailed me this past week: "Congrats on the new space, and bigger congrats on beginning your new life. And it will be TOTALLY interesting to see what you do with a new space. I'd love it if you'd document the journey in pictures so I can eventually blog it. So many of us can identify with starting over - I think figuring out how you'll decorate is one of those big questions that will be thoroughly interesting to answer on a practical (and emotional) level. As far as the decorating, it SHOULD happen slowly. You're in a phase of healing and adjustment -- I think there will be real joy in the process of discovering yourself via your décor."

It was then I realized I'd been itching for a personal outlet anyway. I have a family blog, but I post mostly about my kids on that one. I need one for me. So I'm going to change directions just a slight bit and blog here about this part of my journey. But this time there will be no internal pressure to post. It will happen when it happens. There will be more about my life than just my living space. I assume some posts will be a bit more contemplative than in the past. There will certainly be posts about life "inside the box," but because life "outside the box" is now a much bigger part of who I am and how I spend my time there is plenty to be said about that, too.

So here I go again. Come along if you want. I do enjoy company.