Traveling south
During the last frantic day before our
wedding celebration, I noticed a monarch licking the handles of our
iced tea jugs. One of the butterfly's wings was slightly
crumpled, and I guessed that the insect was having trouble making the
long journey to its wintering grounds in central Mexico. Even
though I believe that nature picks off wounded animals for a reason, I
had to carry the monarch over to the sunflowers, where it began feeding
greedily.
Since we're currently cruising toward Mexico
at this moment while my brother watches the farm, I thought this
monarch was an apt symbol of this week's mini-adventure. Despite
being a homebody, I've always dreamed of traveling. Nine years
ago, I did --- setting off with a backpack full of camping supplies and
sketchbooks for a year-long expedition through Great Britain,
Australia, and Costa Rica.
In the end, what I remember most from that journey was the
homecoming. How American grocery stores seemed huge and slighly
obscene. How the dozens of boxes of books and clothes I'd stored
in my mother's basement seemed even more obscene --- what did I need
with so many possessions?
In a way, that trip was the beginning of my path toward
simplicity. Slipping
outside my own world, I saw myself in a completely new way. What
insight will this adventure bring?
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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