Roads to Joy

Different people have different perspectives; these differences are something to revel in, aren’t they? What’s one person’s garden shed is another’s man-cave, is another’s family shebeen, is another’s bespoke glamping cabin by which a self-sustainable lifestyle could be financed.

We’ve had people looking around the place for the past fortnight or so. Often the eventual message is that this component isn’t right, or that one needs remediation. Not many visitors can see beyond what’s already in place to a future vision that would suit them; the current layout seems to stultify imagination. And yet, and yet the possibilities have scarcely been explored, and there must be many more to develop.

I awoke too early this morning with new ideas buzzing around in my head. Why couldn’t our ramshackle sheds be torn down, replaced with a lovely log cabin that could accommodate two adults and two children, complete with kitchenette and shower room?! Sewage/drainage is feasible, in a direct line to the septic tank. Water is abundant, and power is there for the cabling. The visitors could park right outside their AirBnB cabin for the night. It could certainly work; it’s not something we’d want to do anymore, but someone eager to forsake traditional employment and live a quiet self-sustaining life certainly could, with enough capital.

There might be a few logistics challenges with car parking; these could be sorted with good will. There might be more track renovation; perseverance and another set of judicious concrete placements would see that project finally sorted. It’s so exciting a proposition that I want to start on it ourselves! But my excitement flows too fast ahead of me; we’re downsizing, remember? We’ve been there, done that kind of effort in holiday cottage territory. We’ve other projects to keep us stimulated now; it’s time for someone else’s dream to see fruition here.

And so while our eyes are more open, to help the next occupiers of this lovely place adjust, with a different sort of flexibility than we ourselves had ever thought of, we’re also looking ahead to our own flexibilities, our capacity to adapt to different, smaller, circumstances.

To paraphrase Homer Simpson, baby we’re rich, not only in love but in options for life.