For the past year, a vague sense of restlessness has been brewing in the Barone household.
This will not surprise those who know Hank and me. Nor is the itch to wander an unfamiliar one.
Nearly two decades ago we eloped during a 3-month vacation. In 1996 we packed up the Subaru and didn’t return home for more than a year. Fourteen months later, we moved 2,000-miles across the country to begin a new life. And, for the past decade we’ve divided our time between homes in Old and New Mexico.
So, while the decision to wander - again - might not be breaking news to outsiders, it did, at least for me, feel a bit like a bolt from the blue. As if I suddenly emerged from the rabbit hole with blinking eyes in the blinding light of a new world.
Perhaps it’s because life has been rather comfortable these past few years, ticking along at a creative clip, supported by good friends in an amazingly beautiful part of the world. So, why trade it for the unknown?
Oddly enough, it’s precisely the unknown that has us sitting up nights tossing ideas back and forth, too excited to sleep.
“What about an around-the-world cruise?” I find myself blurting out at 3AM.
“Uruguay sounds nice,” Hank says, nose buried in a South American guidebook over our morning cuppa.
“I wonder if the Four Seasons Bora Bora needs an in-house blogger,” I say, in full schemin’ and dreamin’ mode.
Suddenly, once we wrapped our heads around the idea of leaving, anything feels possible. But beyond putting it out there, that’s as far as we’ve taken it.
So, in true 21st century fashion, I’m throwing it out there to the World Wide Web, in hopes that you, dear reader, will pass this along to your friend the General Manager at Four Seasons Bora Bora, or Dan Austin at Austin Lehman Adventures who you overheard just yesterday say he was looking for an Adventure Ambassador with my exact talents, or a writer-in-residence program that would be the perfect setting for Hank’s next novel…
You see where I’m going with this, don’t ya? ANYWHERE!
We’re open-sourcing our new life and welcome your help.
Have passport, open heart, wild mind, and willing hubby packed and ready.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Ellen
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".