The Zygote Stage

Welcome to my new website, where I’ll be planning my escape from a rote life in Minnesota, and taking to the open road in search of introspection, adventure, interesting people, and new stories to share with the world.

For those who found this site while surfing the web, you can read about how this all came about here. The short story is that I decided to quit waiting for my dreams to come true, and make them happen.

I have clung to the lifeboat of practicality for years only to find myself, at 47, wishing that I’d done more, seen more, listened more, and paid more attention to my own spirit — which has too often felt washed out under fluorescent lights and bridled by workaday sensibilities. I realized long ago that I was not meant to spend my life in offices doing work I had no passion for, but the way I saw it, there was little choice.

2009 was a banner year for personal lessons. Like so many others, I found myself unemployed. I became ill, and had no medical insurance. Subsisting on an unemployment check, I went looking for work for the first time in years, and found myself facing a job market where even the experienced and educated were working in convenience stores for $8 per hour.

I looked around the four walls of my tiny apartment.

I looked in the parking lot, where in better days my leased car used to sit, and where there is now a 1986 Ford Bronco with barely-there brakes and a broken back door.

I looked at the piles of want-ads, resumes, rejection letters, and bills. It felt futile. And even if it wasn’t futile, it’s not what I wanted.

I looked inside my heart, and I knew there were only two ways off this ledge. I could crawl back down into a life I didn’t really want, or I could take a giant leap, with no ropes and no safety net, and do something totally different.

My decision is apparent with this website, and I’m looking forward to gathering support, making new friends, and sharing the journey — and many stories.

I anticipate leaving Minnesota in October. Between now and then, I have a lot of shuffling, organizing, packing, calling, and planning to do. I’m excited about getting started, and will share my progress here as it happens.

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