Living in the Future (and in the Present in the Future)

March 12, 2022

There’s a blizzard outside this morning and a long ways to go in the school year.

I find myself stepping back during my workday and appreciating small moments with my students: when they begin to grasp a new concept, when they feel that they have accomplished a challenge.

And all the while, I am living a few months into the future, trying to keep my mind set on the life we are starting to plan for ourselves.

Avocado Plant and Western Mass Sunrise: This is my current morning scene

I imagine waking up in the van, walking the desert or mountains or plains first thing, observing the land closely and without needing to snatch back my time and loose the low level (constant) stresses of my work.

First steps

The first step is intention and so this is mine: half a year from now, we will wake in the van, Dan and I,  on BLM land in the desert or mountains, somewhere wild and new. In those early hours, I will make coffee and walk. I will write daily. I will develop work habits that leave time to for silence, time to be away from the computer and clear my head. I will live in my moment more fully.

My Why

And I will keep this record for myself and others. I know I would have found such a thing useful. Some of the posts will be practical: “How tos” and “5 Bests” But some will ramble… about the way this crazy brave adventure feels, the way we shape it and the way it may shape us. I will share our failures as well as our successes.

I don’t know what the year will bring. I don’t even know if we will continue traveling past a summer… a year. I do know that I am ready for a change and that it is as much an internal process as an external one. 

Walking in late Winter

There is more to come.