Four

Part ONE:
I traveled the world to discover that I wanted to live in one place and to settle in the green mountains of Vermont in the place of my birth. I learned that having a garden, being close to the land and sitting by the rivers edge with a cold beer on a hot afternoon was the most delicious sensation and was as satisfying as rambling for hours on countless buses to remote regions of the globe. I bought goats, like you do, and set up to make a life. I invested in a home and a place. I threw myself into realizing a dream I hadn’t realized I had.
After four years of being on three continents and traveling more than living, I found myself planting a seed in the most familiar and yet unlikely place, home. Coming to find that is what I had wanted. Those four years gave me the confidence to try a new adventure of staying still. I found that settling down wasn’t the same as settling. Amazingly, or amazingly unremarkably, it took me four months to up and move again. With my last dollar having been spent on making this life for myself in the woods with a view of a remarkable valley, I parted with it and with six days notice I up and moved to South America.
I sold my goats, like you do. Packed up the life. Abandoned the garden I had planted, to be harvested by someone else. I kissed my friends goodbye, drank as much of my wine as I could stand, and put the valuable tools I had gathered into four bags. Four seems to be the magic number here. Shaking I got onto a plane and wondered if this new expression of my impetuous adventuring was a good idea or just another escape. Again, four days later, that plane landed and brought me back to a place I had left weeping two years earlier, sure that I would never return.
I am back, but the place and time that broke my heart then is gone too. It is a new place now. A new life and a new perspective. Along with the city, I have been reborn into a revised scenario. Where I am independent, blazing my own path down familiar streets. The cast of characters and the purpose has changed for the better. They call me Ms. and I love every one of them. Teaching is what I am made for, and with each experience I have I am more sure of it.

So I am nearly south of the equator and February is warm and has brought the rain back to Colombia. With the rain something else is falling on my heart and washing away the fear and doubt that had settled like dust in the corners of my life. With any construction you have to kick up the dirt, dig a hole and tear everything down before you are ready to build it up again… so we are in the reconstruction stage. Letting the rain bring life back to the land y a mi tambien.

I built one life in four months and left it. I have planted another garden here and with less than six months on the ground I think the fruits of this labor will be delicious. They are already.