Time Over Money

It has been a good four months since Pete and I quit our jobs, gave away or sold most of our possessions and moved in temporarily with our parents. We have not yet started our travels, so I thought I would fill you in on what exactly we have been doing. Our lives have changed quite incredibly by the simple fact that we no longer have jobs. Granted, we are still doing some work such as freelancing and tutoring. Anyway, it’s really fantastic how much time we have had to do the things we actually want to be doing. And how much happier, healthier and liberated we have both felt. So, although we have not been waking up at the crack of dawn to drink our coffee, shower and rush off to work, we have still been somewhat productive. We both still wake up pretty early as it’s nice to rise with the sun. Only now we take our time sipping good coffee while we read or instagram in bed for 20 minutes. Pete then normally hits the showers while I make us some new vegan breakfast dish I found on Pinterest. Tofu scramble is the bees knees by the way, you gotta try that shit. :)

Then it’s one of my favourite times of the day: yoga time. Time to stretch those stiff muscles and get my heart racing and my sweat glands working. So, quick side note, but I can honestly say that yoga has changed my life and having more time to enhance my home practice has been awesome. (Get your own home practice going with a little help from the awesome Yoga with Adriene.) Even Pete gets his tree pose on. We manage to fit in the work we do have, but we do it in our own time. We do so much more as well. We go for long evening walks and sometimes even hikes. We, okay no, not we, Pete, bakes amazing vegan goodies and then we eat them all in one day. We work on our own projects, like ‘zines, and we go for long drives along the Midlands Meander. We talk, laugh and enjoy family. We make almond milk and smoothies and hang out on the sunny lawn with our bunny and the two cats. We go on camping trips into the mountains where the air is wild and there are no people around. And my absolute favourite, we plan, plan, plan. Plan our trip to the States, where we will go, how we will eat, and who we will see.

Some of these things we did get to do when we had jobs and more responsibilities, but the general pace of life has seriously slowed down, allowing us to take in a whole lot more. It’s so great to have the time to sit in a beautiful place and do nothing else but just be. To make time to do this is much harder but equally important. If there is anything that all this extra time has taught me, it’s that time is what you make of it. If you’re having a crappy day or just feeling down, allow yourself to be human. Allow yourself to feel and then let it go, ready to take on the next feeling or experience. So this sounds kind of spiritual or hippy shmippy but it makes a lot of sense to me. I really hope that when I’m working again one day I will remember to take the time to take my time.

Other than all the fun stuff we have been getting up to we have also got some more practical stuff done and dusted. We have bought our tickets to North America, bought some of our gear and planned where we are going and what we will be doing. Oh yes, and we have started learning Spanish for our trip to South America. We still have a few things to check off our list but we are feeling pretty ready by now. But until the 3 June, our departure date, we will keep on being busy with all the things we want to be keeping busy with.

by Cara