‘Some people work to buy things. I work to buy time’
It was in the Drakensberg, South Africa where we met the German traveller who imparted this small pea of wisdom. A fellow aficionado of long-term travel he shared how he lived frugally to afford sojourns abroad every couple of years in-between full time work. It’s where I’m at now, back in the world of the open plan office.
It’s been a year since we started this trip and this part of our lives is sadly at an end. After location scouting for nearly a year and setting our hearts and sights on Tanzania, our dream jobs fell through. Then our back up plan got stuck when the amount of travel outside of the region couldn’t be agreed upon. Finally, the remaining options on the table just weren’t rewarding enough to justify another move – and another round of residency hassles. It was time to acknowledge that the universe wasn’t always going to serve us what we wanted and it was time for our very good run abroad to end. Instead as we prepped Bruce for a sale we got asked by separate companies (and ex-bosses) if we would consider working in Sydney again. So here I am, writing the last post of this ad-hoc wanderlust scrapbook from Sydney.
The fourth life has ended, or dare I say paused. We’re returning to a previous life: Sydney, the rat race, the beach, our old friends. Part of the reason is because of opportunities (now available in Australia), part of it is to reconnect with an old community and to stretch out our roots. And a large part is to prepare for the next life, one that will revolve around living off the grid and once more attempt that balance between financial and environmental sustainability. The goal is going to take a lot longer than one trip and I’ve come to accept it might takes years to get to the point I had wanted to be at by now.
I’ve been back at work for a month now and it is at the same time straightforward and surreal to go back to a world centred upon the brevity of time, convenience living and achievement. Outwardly achievement is the most noticeable, in salary or promotion, in a large mortgage or in family devotion. But talking to old friends reminded me of other personal goals that are less visible to the eye, like well-being, risk-taking and being true to yourself. I remembered setting personal goals in a career/life development course I took as a graduate over 8 years ago and that my number one goal had been inner peace. My engineering mentor had been mortified. What kind of professional sought inner peace instead of financial security? My belief was what was the point of one without the other? And without enunciating it part of the journey over the past 5 years of absence has been a discovery of peace. To observe the conflicting wishes (stuff versus sustainability), multiple goals (freedom, a vibrant life) and not take on everything at the same time for the sake of sanity. And finally, to realise that as short as life is it is also long enough to take the scenic route.
It’s good to be back home. It really feels like it’s the right place to be, for now. It’s even better to have come back in a better place than when I left. This has been a short and sporadic blog but I wanted to write this one last post to mark the end of the fourth life and to remind myself of the invisible things achieved in that brief and wondrous life*.
*Junot Diaz.
