Rut-Busting

by Sadge, at Firesign Farm
Bear with me - this isn't the post I thought I'd be writing this time around, but sometimes rolling with the changes can be ok too. For some of you, trying to learn to live a new, frugal, lifestyle, everything probably seems so new and different. Trying to replace old habits with new ones is hard - doing such mundane things as planning and packing healthy lunches, or learning to grow or perserve your own food can take all the concentration, determination, and effort you can give it.

I've been living like that for quite a while now. I've learned what I need and the ways to go about getting it. It can be so easy, once you've figured out what works for you, to get complacent and lazy, even. You get into a rut, and find it can even be quite comfortable. That's where we are right now, and it could be so easy to just vegetate there, but that's really not my style.

I bust out of my ruts, usually, by traveling. I love seeing new things, experiencing different cultures, learning new ways of looking at our world. My husband, on the other hand, doesn't see things the same way however. Right out of college in the 70's, he did the whole see-Europe-with-a-backpack-and-a-Eurailpass bit for a summer, and when he got back to the States said he'd never get on a plane again. And I understood - he'd tried it, and he didn't like it. Ok, I can accept that.

But in return, I told him before we got married that he also had to accept the converse about me. I love the experience of culture shock, the nervousness of trying something new and different - it can be stressful, but for me, it's a good, energizing type of stress. So our pre-marital agreement was: I won't bug him to go with me; he can't say anything when I go without him.

And so now, here I am, 1,000 miles away from home. I don't have access to my home computer, nor the photos I'd though about using for my turn to post here. Sometimes, I can get really adventurous, ending up writing home from internet cafes where the keyboard is strange, but this time around I'm visiting family. Mom lives in Denver, so I flew out to stay with her. It just so happens, though, that she was planning on going camping with my sister, down in southwestern Colorado, near where a brother lives. So, adapting again, I'm now writing this post on Mom's laptop, borrowing internet access from another camping friend. I also get to go visit some friends I haven't seen for 25 years too. It feels good, getting a new outlook on life. And then, in a week, I'll be back in my familiar groove once again, but refreshed too. What do you do when your life needs a bit of a reset? When out of your comfort zone, do you feel good stress or bad stress?