Second Life

A co-worker of mine has decided to pack it in, and go and work on an organic farm for the spring, summer and fall. She leaves in a few weeks, and will be gone until the end of October. Now, she is younger than me, she is not married, has no children, just an apartment and a cat. Both were easily farmed out during her absence.

I am, perhaps envious of her. Just a tiny bit. To do this, you see, I would have to sell my house, find homes for my dogs, leave behind my own garden. Given Mr. Spit's unreasonable dislike of living chickens, I might have to leave him behind too.

And, I would do none of that willingly. I like my life. Mostly. I wouldn't leave it behind. However much I might be wistful, I am not the sort of woman who goes on grand adventures. It is hard to have a grand adventure when you like sleeping in your bed, next to your husband, with a dog between you, one on the floor next to you, and two cats in a pile on your feet. The older I get, the more I realize, Christ was right, our things, do in some sense, own us. Even when they are good things like a husband and pets, we cannot easily move to another thing. I will say it again, I love my husband, and I like my life. I would not turn my back on it.

But, there is a niggling. A thing that I think strikes us all from time to time, a thing where we want to throw up our hands and our careful lives that seem so small and mediocre, and we want to pitch it all in, and go and do something very different. We wonder, what would our life be like, if we did something completely different!

If you could pitch your career, (0r if you are a SAHM, your kids), what would you do? What wild and crazy career/adventure/new life would you live?