Joseph Campbell summed it up my past two years best when he said: “we must be willing to let go of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

Two years ago this week I took a last look around my sweet house basking in spring sunlight and closed the door on both the house and my old life and started on a journey not realizing I was playing out an old story, a hero’s journey taken by many in midlife when as Campbell also describes beautifully. 

“Midlife is when you reach the top of the ladder and find out it was leaning against the wrong wall.”

Since that auspicious day, I’ve tangled with rattlesnakes, hiked mountains, traveled the world alone and spent meaningful time with friends and family. More importantly, I assimilated many valuable lessons and learned to live in a new way. 10 pounds heavier, but so much lighter in spirit and stuff (although there is that storage locker, ugh). Some of these lessons I’ve teased out through this blog, some I still have to document, many I’m still working on.

But here are my takeaways after two years.

• Being alone is not lonely
• It was not about travel, It was about leaving.
• My story might be someone else’s guide.
• My feet are now firmly on the ground, but my head remains in the clouds.
• Living betwixt and between sharpens the senses
• I am now the planner of my life, not the editor.
• Important to move from theoretical to action.
• Use outlines, not detailed action plans.
• Deconstruct before you build.
• Everything I need fits in the car, including a 70-pound dog.
• Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other’s gold 
• Community is fluid and always available.
• Where you focus is where you go
• Get comfortable with being uncomfortable
• Living in an abundance mindset is so much better than a fear mindset
• Liminality is reality
• Resilience if forged not found
• Homefree is more than a state of mind.
• I don’t want to do what I’ve learned. I want to learn what I can do.
• I have become the central character of my life
• Home is in me, not outside me.
• I have been forged in fire. Tempered by experience
• The journey was to myself. 

Last, but not least, I’ve learned to trust in faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.

P.S. Tag–you’re it Ellen!