I've been thinking about change a great deal lately, as many things in my life have been in transition.  In just the past 2 years, the girl graduated from high school and went off to college, we moved (a total of about 50 feet, but it was still a move), and my work load has increased.

But, I think, the biggest change has been what I believe to be an instinctual need to travel.  To find new places, explore new things, see what I have never seen before.  Maybe it is instinctual, or maybe it is just because I am watching many of my friends retire and realize for the first time that I am running out of time.

Before you get the wrong idea, there is nothing wrong with me, well outside the things that have always been wrong with me, but no health issues, I still take no medications, my eyesight is fine over two feet away.  I'm fat and out of shape, but that can be fixed.

But I also know that I have limited time to do some of the things I have wanted to do.  Hike the Appalachian Trail, do a coast-to-coast bike ride, fish in Alaska, learn pottery, build another bike are all on my list.  I refuse to call it a "bucket list," but essentially that is what it is.

I also realized that in life I have collected a bunch of things.  Not things that mean things to me, or things that make me happy, or things that I use every day or every 6 months.  Just things.  Since the last move started, we walked though the house and put a piece of blue painter's tape on everything we thought we could part with.  We came up with enough to almost fill a one car garage.  All stuff that was not essential, not valued, and for the most part, not used.  With the exception of the treadmill, that is just worn out.  And every week we look around the house, and the garage, and find more things we can throw out or give away.

Those are some of the changes.  I look forward to more.  And as I change my approach to live to focus on experiences I want to have, I also look forward to the upcoming years, sometimes planning, but more often flying by the seat of my pants.