Living IRL
What is Real Life? Is it job, mortgage, raising kids and all the like? I happily tackle all the items on the daily Mom-Do-This list. (Renamed the To-Do list for what it actually feels like most days...) Then we pack up and fly south to our little slice of heaven in the Dominican Republic and then I'm outside, breathing air and listening to all the birds, frogs and crickets, annoyed at how loud they can be! Somehow nature feels 'real' and the daily grind back home seems like a holding pattern. Does everyone feel this way?
I like when the whole family has to live in close quarters without internet really interfacing with one another. Add to that Grandma and all her games and it really is a family vacation akin to what I remember camping with the whole family to be like. With all the video games, apps, streaming TV and such, it’s no wonder we all feel a bit disconnected. It’s hard to be present in each other’s lives, let alone our own.
I think we can all agree that life happens in those little moments we can never engineer: playing cards or watching a movie piled together with the family pets on the couch, chatting in the car on the way to an appointment, lying on the living room floor, heads together laughing about something silly. I guess I would categorize most of those things as "downtime". So is relocating to an island the ultimate quest for this elusive non-time during which the really important and fleeting stuff happens? I think it might be...
Everyone we have met here in the Dominican Republic talks as if they are escaping something: They have ‘served’ their time working for the man and now they are free. The political climate in the US, Europe or Canada gives them ulcers. The culture they grew up in doesn’t exist anymore, their time doesn't seem to serve their needs and desires, rather the profit line of another, and so on. One commonality they all seem to share however, is that their hard-earned retirement income will stretch much further here than back in North America or Europe...and the weather is warm all year round. Some lucky people can afford one foot in both worlds, or are required to live half the year in one place and then the other for insurance or financial reasons. The former because they have enough retirement income to maintain dual lives, whereas the latter are forced to check in and/or work for several months in the North to then relax for the rest of the year in the South.
So? Which life is their real one? Or do they feel equally real? We are not yet at the point where we could chime in on this question. I suspect my better half feels strongly that life here in the Dominican Republic is the real life and the daily grind working at a corporation or in a classroom, slave to a work schedule and vacation calendar is not a life at all. I tend to agree. But, then the real question is how to live your life anywhere with the mindset that every minute has value and should be appreciated because time is indeed precious. I don't know. I am trying to be mindful in my life, and teach my children to appreciate what they have and not pine for what they think they want, mistaking it for need. Too philosophical? Yeah...sometimes, I need to just get over it. Hahaha...
All we can do is make plans. Our plan to move semi-permanently or permanently to the Caribbean. Our plan to build our dream home. Our plan to still help support our young children back in the North. Our plan to travel. And so on and so forth. This all comes with so many other contingent and probably unforeseen plans that we haven't even started researching, and then some that we have: Health insurance for us and kids back in the States, Tax rules, passive income, etc.
Sometimes I wish I was more bohemian, less of a planner. A risk-taker more than a scaredy-cat. But, everything's relative and our purchase of a home in the Dominican Republic would be considered by many to be risky. The future is capricious. We'll see what it holds for us. For now, the plan remains work where pay is high and towards a future elsewhere, all the while living a good life.
Update: Back in the North
I like when the whole family has to live in close quarters without internet really interfacing with one another. Add to that Grandma and all her games and it really is a family vacation akin to what I remember camping with the whole family to be like. With all the video games, apps, streaming TV and such, it’s no wonder we all feel a bit disconnected. It’s hard to be present in each other’s lives, let alone our own.
I think we can all agree that life happens in those little moments we can never engineer: playing cards or watching a movie piled together with the family pets on the couch, chatting in the car on the way to an appointment, lying on the living room floor, heads together laughing about something silly. I guess I would categorize most of those things as "downtime". So is relocating to an island the ultimate quest for this elusive non-time during which the really important and fleeting stuff happens? I think it might be...
So? Which life is their real one? Or do they feel equally real? We are not yet at the point where we could chime in on this question. I suspect my better half feels strongly that life here in the Dominican Republic is the real life and the daily grind working at a corporation or in a classroom, slave to a work schedule and vacation calendar is not a life at all. I tend to agree. But, then the real question is how to live your life anywhere with the mindset that every minute has value and should be appreciated because time is indeed precious. I don't know. I am trying to be mindful in my life, and teach my children to appreciate what they have and not pine for what they think they want, mistaking it for need. Too philosophical? Yeah...sometimes, I need to just get over it. Hahaha...
All we can do is make plans. Our plan to move semi-permanently or permanently to the Caribbean. Our plan to build our dream home. Our plan to still help support our young children back in the North. Our plan to travel. And so on and so forth. This all comes with so many other contingent and probably unforeseen plans that we haven't even started researching, and then some that we have: Health insurance for us and kids back in the States, Tax rules, passive income, etc.
Sometimes I wish I was more bohemian, less of a planner. A risk-taker more than a scaredy-cat. But, everything's relative and our purchase of a home in the Dominican Republic would be considered by many to be risky. The future is capricious. We'll see what it holds for us. For now, the plan remains work where pay is high and towards a future elsewhere, all the while living a good life.
Update: Back in the North
Alas, as winter has finally arrived in our Michigan abode and with it frigid temperatures...all colors have been removed from sight...
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| This is literally a color photo of my back yard... |
Which makes the winter view from our pool deck in the morning even more inviting
Given the choice of realities...which would you choose?
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