Vagabonding
I recently had some friends come visit from around the globe. One from Portland, one from Sweden, one from Arizona and one from Pennsylvania (or wherever he happens to be in a given month…in a few weeks it will be Europe). This is a very happy-go-lucky crew in the biggest sense of the term.
My friend from Sweden, for example, works only as much as she needs to…..that is, enough to support her adventures and travels around the globe. My friend from Pennsylvania calls nowhere home…….and is as content sleeping on a park bench as he is a nice bed.
The commonality here, is that they work to live to work. They do not live to work. There is no postponement of joy or happiness for some other day. It all happens now.
Since they are on a budget, that also means a lot of their enjoyment is “free fun”…..like parcouring, scavenging for free fruit on city trees (Ravenna in Seattle is full of it…have you ever tried a Papple? They are everywhere), hiking, relaxing in the sun, playing the guitar, taking funny pictures and spending hours laughing at them….you get the point.
Rolf Potts termed this type of lifestyle as Vagabonding.
Vagabonding – n. A deliberate way of living that makes the freedom of travel possible.
While I enjoy the comforts and certainty that a great job, stable circle of friends and nice place to live all provide….part of me is jealous at the absolute freedom my Vagabonding friends experience…..and the extreme joy they have found in the simple things that don’t cost a penny, and frankly don’t require anything but a little creativity and lots of awareness in the present moment.
