Umpteen months of planning. Complete home renovation and sale. Cargo containers packed and ready to be shipped. On an actual ship. Property purchased but a home yet to be built. As we hurriedly unloaded the dogs and cats in crates, I wondered if they felt as though the impossible was being realized...even in their sleepless, stressy haze. Even as Leia, the recently certified Canine Good Citizen/Service Dog whined and pulled slightly on her leash, ready to go.
Upon arrival in Kona, they would then have to do it all over again on their hop over to Hilo...and arrive to the converted storage container they would live in while they built the home of their dreams.
Is that nuts???
How crazy do you have to be to uproot your particularly complicated life and set it down on an island in the middle of the Pacific?
But what if it was your lifelong dream?
Would it be nuts? Or would it be pretty much the coolest, bravest thing ever?
As I pulled away from the departure terminal this morning and drove the rented van, now empty, back toward the home they all lived in for thirty years, I thought about that question and smiled a really big smile for our dear family friends. They were brave enough to realize their dream and crazy enough to make it happen...no matter what complications or roadblocks. No matter what they fear, what lies ahead, they are going to live the life they dreamed of.
Three years ago today, we were opening the door to our little shop for the very first time. And I smiled really big again, because there is something truly amazing about uprooting your life. And taking chances. And making your way. Being crazy enough to be brave. In these three years I have learned more than I could ever impart, and oh man there is still a world of learning in front of me.
What I can tell you is this:
You will meet the coolest people, and they will teach you the definitions of goodness, grace, gratitude, and commitment. You will meet totally uncool people, and they will teach you the definition of other things entirely, but they will teach you lessons you needed to learn. Your roadblocks will pop up often, and you will get creative enough to forge a new road. You will try new things, and learn your strengths, and most definitely your weaknesses. You will learn how fear and love are the truest motivations for hustle. You will shift your priorities, you will change your mind. You will learn that you are mostly made of marshmallows and that you have to get tough, but just a little. You will learn how hard it is. Hopefully you will inspire others, even though admitting your own confusion is sometimes all you have to offer. Your wistful wanderlustiness will turn into executable plans of action. You may find yourself being comfortable in your own skin even as your life is anything but comfortable. And soon enough you will find yourself, surely, taking more chances and being like WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF.
It doesn't have to be when pigs literally fly. On a plane. To Hawaii.
It can be a little chance. Or a big one.
But take it.
Be crazy, be brave, whatever that looks like to you. You are never too old, you are never too young.
It is never the right time. I mean to tell you it is literally never the right time. But it is never, ever too late.
photo credit: WhiteCellarDoor via Etsy
So cheers to you for for these three years, cheers to many more, and cheers to our friends Jess and Jean, their menagerie, and their safe arrival in Hilo.
