The other day I needed a distraction and found myself digging through some old J&J videos. Let me tell you, it was EXACTLY what I needed. Do you remember when we started this and it was all about sailing? I am still in awe that we managed to do something that crazy.

In the beginning, we wanted to document our travels for friends and family to keep tabs on us. We were even approached to publish this blog/videos in exchange for money. You know what that means, ugly pop-up ads and annoying spammy banners all over the place. Its completely distracting, ugly and tends to overload a webpage. When I visit sites like this, I immediately click elsewhere. Sure it’d be nice to have payed subscribers, but who wants ugly ads or the pressure to write for someone else’s agenda? Not us. We simply want to share our story (as much or little as we choose) and hopefully inspire a few along the way.

I have a collection of thousands (yes, plural) of hours of unedited footage currently living on several hard drives…remember “The Great Hard Drive Crash of 2016?” I learned my lesson and now have backups for my backups, but that doesn’t bring back the dozen videos and hours of labor lost. I still maintain that I WILL publish all of this backlogged data, I just need a new computer.

At least there were tons of videos that made it into the world. I was immersed and could remember how significant it all felt at the time. How could I possibly forget these details?

Yet here I sit today, almost unable to believe it, without seeing. Time does this to everything. Big things make their mark and change us, but rarely can we go back and remember every component and gamut of emotions playing through us at the time. I also forgot how silly we were, Jake especially. At one point I laughed so hard my coffee came out of my nose. Ouch!

So, if you are need a laugh or distraction, take a look at this:

Now, on to other things…

A friend of ours from the Te Araroa experience wrote me the other day. He, like us, is a free-sprit and adventurer. We only met briefly on the trail, but felt like we were long lost friends. He shared all of his amazing projects of late, not to mention that he just got engaged. What I loved most is that his fiancé (who has never met us) wants to invite us to their wedding. How sweet is that? Obviously we are beyond thrilled and will definitely go. Did I mention, they live in France?

We also discussed a joint-adventure; a trip to Svalbard or Greenland. It certainly helps when someone else motivates you to make a decision about your own life and it doesn’t hurt that this is one of those things on our master list.

As you know, we’ve contemplated the ‘what’s next?’ question over and over to the point of exhaustion. Its very difficult to say, though now we’ve got these new potential seeds planted, a trip to France and a trip to Greenland or Svalbard!

I believe that the Universe is the ultimate guide in life. This is the key factor that has driven me for the last 4+ years of travels. It brought me the initial strength to give up our perfect life of safety, security and piece of mind. It continues to direct my choices as we go forward. My instincts are not of a free-flowing nature. I struggle with the need to have a plan and a safety net in place vs. keeping everything wide open, with no pressure to force anything. Ultimately this means letting go of control and fear while having faith that life will point the way.

To this day, I can’t believe where we are and how far we’ve come. We are in this most beautiful home in Canada with the sweetest animals ever. We have somehow managed to continue to live and afford a life in a nomadic fashion but now also have some foundation to stand on. Its exactly what we have asked for; though perhaps not exactly how we envisioned it.

If you’ve kept on our blog, you know that we talk a lot about owning a big piece of land with lots of animals and be someplace out in the middle of nowhere, ideally with mountains nearby. With our current situation, we have all of that and more; 160 acres of land, loads of animals, a stunning home and tons of gorgeous wilderness (mountains included) to play. On top if that are amazing people and just about anything we could dream of having in our own Bosco Station. We are testing the waters, literally, of a life that we THINK we want. The best part is that its not permanent. We can still choose another path if we desire.

We are beginning to understand what this type of life will mean; it won’t be just about US. Having animals is a huge time commitment. I can understand why people with families, children, pets, etc., prefer to have stability (home, job, routines) because its a ton of work at the expense of your personal time and energy. To all you parents out there, I give you mad props for your sacrifice to rearing your humans / animals.

There is much less time for myself, not to mention the inability to leave on a whim and go anywhere we please. The large property is amazing, but loads of work and physically laborious. Neither of us is shy about diving in the deep end of getting our hands dirty. Overall it has been a remarkable discovery process that we never anticipated.

And so the moral of our tale today, perhaps our present journey is not all that random, like I thought. Its not a clear path with perfect, set-in-stone, answers. Our souls continue to evolve on the path, regardless of how we think it should look. And life, or the Universe, is giving us exactly what we needed and have asked for. Its the greatest gift during a time when all we do is question what’s next.

“When your dream has been realized, its no longer a dream. Then there are new dreams.”