Acceptance On The Home Front

In my end of trip, 'navel gazing' post, I wrote about the power of Acceptance as a critical component of the trip's success. I also alluded to bringing that attitude to our life here in Albuquerque. 

Regular readers know Wife and I have struggled mightily with our life at home. Do we keep the house? Do we move? Where? What do we want? If we can't get what we want, what do we do? And more of the like. This has led to a round of frustration for almost two years. The circular logic went like this...

• We didn't want to take care of the big house and yard any longer
• We wanted the high-rise, apartment, live in city where you could walk everywhere lifestyle (see our loving of El Campello)
• But I need to keep working some to pay for our travel
• If I need to keep working, we have to stay in Albuquerque because that is where my network and reputation are. Not going to go somewhere else at this late date and put in all the work to build a new network and reputation).
• Can we find the high-rise, walking lifestyle in Albuquerque? No!
• So we have to stay in the house

Hence we set out to get the house fixed up so we can stay here long-term. But that became its own 'Groundhog's Day' of trying to achieve a perfect outcome.

Coming back from our trip, with our new acceptance attitude, we have focused on 'What is reasonable and can actually get done'. With that mind shift, suddenly an number of logjams have broken. We are hoping in a few weeks to have some commitments for getting the work scheduled and done. 

In the meantime, I have been immersed at getting my business practice up to an acceptable level. It hasn't been that hard. I know what I'm doing. I know how to connect people. I do good work. And the fact that my women in Ghana have stepped up and been able to take responsibility for the day-to-day of their business means I don't need to be up at early hours doing that work so I have better work/life balance.

How's this for the 'Acceptance' contemplation?

I get to travel the world in style. I spend months enjoying the pleasures of other cultures and leading a completely different lifestyle than I did in my 'work-a-day' career days. I live in a lovely house that many would die to have. I get to use my experience and mind to help others to achieve their personal dreams AND I get paid to do it. I have been given the opportunity to change the trajectory of women's lives in a part of the world where hope is a scarce commodity. And that has given me yet another experience of another completely different culture. And I am doing all this at an age when the vast majority of my peers are checking out on life.

I think I can ACCEPT this.