How Did We Become, Living Lifes Journey?
Because I am writing this and well.. because I and the one talking about this, it is through my very "WISE" and "WIFELY" perspective that I am sharing this road we walked to get to this point. To discover small parts about how and when things became the ground we now stand on. So, now join us on a little story on how tis all came to be.
I began writing down on a digital diary how I felt and pretty much everything that would stumble through my mind during times of great difficulties. When my heart was heavy, I would write and write. ✍️ I found it a great relief to have a place to take all the scrambled thoughts in my head and get it out... as they would sometimes would see me up at night.
During one assignment to Indiana, we lived away from other military families. To be honest, the town we lived in didn't even know that a Marine Unit was even in their city.. 🌃 let alone that Marines lived among them. As time passed on and Henry went on training missions and had to go overseas.. I felt adrift and alone, still living a "military life" in a non-military town.
I found YouTube that year, and in that an outlet to talk with other wives all over not only the United States but, those stationed abroad and foreign military spouses that were dealing with similar situations as I. It became a way of decompressing and sharing compassion and I found joy in this.
YouTube became a foundation that I learned to do many things from.. between making friends, I also learned how to create many thing from.. I also stepped out of my comfort zone and created my own channel, there I shared my challenges, cooking tips, organization ideas and care packages 📦 for those going overseas.
This became a great way to breathe between stressors, worries and filling time when going from one extreme to another. This really doesn't matter if your related to the military or not.. we all go. through this and that.. in one form or another its just named differently and I was grateful for it.
Henry and I spent many hours talking about the ideas of trips we would someday take, dream about adventure and places to see. When we had the children around us.. we would take them on short "Stay-cations" to find things and create sweet moments to share for years to come. We would have loved to go on trips however, when you live on 1 income, spreading expenses to care for a family of 7.. money 💰 is tight and adventurous vacations are not on the ready list so... they never came to be but, the list stayed and the list continued to grow.. dreams never died.
One by One the children grew up...before we knew it our home 🏠 became an empty nest and the halls echoed, leaving once again for us to try and figure out ..
What to do next....
You see Henry has been in the Marine Corps. now for 27 years, we have been married for 13 of those and dated for 5 years before that. Within those scrambled chaotic times, Henry spent most of that time either in training, schools, field operations and overseas on deployment. One thing is for certain, when you marry someone in the Marine Corps or the military period, you will learn more about yourself then you did before and I am grateful for it.
So.. in this new identity and roll that we play, you see mostly me more then him, not because he isn't interested in getting involved but, because his work requires much attention and many hours of him being there and not here, this is how the ball ⚽️ bounces in our life after all.
For most of Henry's career in the Corps. he has been stationed in California and in the desert 🌵 to boot. He may have done quick stents here and there but, he has been pretty much stationed in 29 Palms. It was during this time and between deployments that we had another talk.. holding off the dread of that pit fall, the fear we get right before deployments of "what if's" built pages of "what could be" and "what is next"..
We spent countless hours dreaming 💭
With Henry at 27 Years.. we have just a few more before we tap dance into retirement, so coming to the understanding of what we will do after the military.. where will we go. You see that is the crux of it all, we have always had a plan in a way to go back home to Montana however, Henry sacrificed his youth .. his health in the military, traveled all over the world for the military and what was required of him to do for his work...time has passed .. years of his life have slipped away so quickly.
Our kids grew up.. we grew older.. so, what next?
We had watched hours of Youtube videos and stumbled on channels where people are traveling across the country in RV's, living their lives and discovering what is out there to be found, if they just looked for it. We laughed at first but, the curiosity grew.. the idea started to take route and then we started to talk to people that stayed at the base RV Park and found families that we actually doing it, this just amazed me even further to the point where Henry and I started to dream for ourselves about many trips we could take.
The notion of moving freely from one place to another, untethered from a home or stuff.. just moving, finding places to park and waking up in a new location and seeing an ocean 🌊 one day and the mountains 🏔 the next.. the idea creating a burning desire so much so, that I felt excited about the idea of happily making new memories together with out the dreaded fear of him wearing combat gear anymore. I wanted this .. and that became a focus for us during this upcoming deployment.
During the deployment we purchased a truck that we named Bertha.. she's a Ford F350 Dually. We would need her to do the hard work 😓 of pulling an RV we would eventually purchase.. because purchase we will.... it is only when.. we just didn't know as of yet.
We searched for the style of RV we wanted.. the length we would like 👍 and what would fit us the most, which manufacturer model had the best floor plan and what we could afford. There is so so many RV's out there and we had a hunt on our hands 🙌, while Henry was deployed I went to several RV shows to do walk throughs myself, you could say that this gave me a differing perspective as well as ideas of what I would like and didn't like in an RV so, I shared that with Henry during our countless video chats.
We found the RV that we would later purchase when Hank came home 🏠. We called her "Charlotte" after the movie 🎥 National Treasure. She was our very first RV and through this experience we learned much.. how they make sound and strange sounds, things will break and its good to learn how to repair them yourself... there was so much to learn and we got a in your face education.
But before all this we had to down size.. and you will always be in a state of downsizing through your entire RV experience. Finding and organizing, creating space and having space for the items you need.. what you once had in a sticks and brick home is not what you will have in an RV and you must make the best out of it.
When we made this decision some of our family and friends thought we were nuts.. gone crazy 😜 but, once we explained why, they understood. We can always go back into a "normal" home, we can always buy "THINGS" but you can't buy memories. Henry has gone through so much.. done so much and we now want to have time for us.. create as many memories and check off the dreams and ideas on our lists of wishes.
Each step in life is a journey.. it effects everything around you, the conversations you have with others, the sunrises you see before as a new day dawns and the perspective you bring, the hand you hold when you share a cup of coffee Or walk down a pathway... Life is about so many things and having someone to share it with makes it that much more special.
I am grateful to share that with Henry and create these dreams together.
This is how Living Life's Journey came to be, From driving, finding new things, cooking, our puppies, retirement and traveling 🧳 these are the things that we will be sharing with you all.. and the reason we started this adventure to share with all of you.
Thanks for being a part of this and following along...more will come, in time!
Robyn
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