How did I get here?

Hi! I’m Mary and I live full time in my 2015 Toyota RAV4. Here you will find stories and tips from the road that I hope will amuse, inspire, and perhaps even help those who dream of living more simply. My lifestyle focuses on maintaining a daily meditation practice, getting lots of sunshine and exercise, and creating conditions for regular study and personal reflection. 

                                             

So…how did I get to be free enough to leave it all behind at the ripe age of 50ish? In 2020, I left my teaching job of 16 years and by early 2022 I ended a nearly four decades long career in public service. I took a reduced pension, started a small online business selling lesson plans, and began to live life differently. I listed my home in August of 2022 and gave myself three and a half months to dismantle, sentimentalize over, and store years of living. A huge deciding factor: the taxes and utilities on my home were nearly equivalent to the cost of campground fees.

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To tell it like it really was back in 2020, as I watched the career I had struggled so hard to build dissolve, the darkest hour took hold. Once an adventurer and a lover of the outdoors, I had become agoraphobic and depressed. Life seemed like a heap of despair with a huge dash of self-pity and a hint of psychosis in the sauce. I had a bit of wisdom to know something would grow from my disillusion and indeed, it did. Many blessings were headed my way and I began to establish a meditation practice under the guidance of the most extraordinary and compassionate teachers. The darkest hour spun out into hues of balance, stability and clarity and the path forward began to unfold.  

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Please join me on my journey! I look forward to seeing you down the road.