New Year - New Start

For pretty much the whole of 2008 we have been plotting, planning and devising our new life. It has been a long process, not only including the nuts and bolts of how to do it, but the emotional and organizational changes necessary to be able to exit the stage of the '9 to 5' grind. One of the requirements was finding jobs that allow for such a degree of flexibility - and this is one of the first things many of our friends and family ask about. It has been strangely easier than it sounds. We have also made things a lot easier on ourselves by downsizing, simplifying and saving money, and so both work part-time now anyway. This is where many of the ideas and principles in one of the books on our booklist really helped ("Your Money Or Your Life"). While we would never have really been considered big spenders (except for the big trips we take occasionally ...), it was amazing how much money we found ourselves wasting when we started to look at it from a different perspective - that is, money earned = life energy expended on jobs to earn it in the first place.

We also had to address home life, Colorado (our dog), and changing our expectation for how life should/would/could be. So all that has led us through 2008 to the start of a new year. And this has always been our planned stepping off point. New Year 2009.

To mark the occasion, we are heading to the Olympic Peninsula to celebrate this new start. We are booked into a tiny A frame cabin on a bay to welcome us into our new adventure. You can check out where we are staying at http://www.chitobeach.com/. We are in the Bird House, waiting for the dramatic winter storms that sweep in over the winter seas .....

Happy New Year. Happy New Start!!!

"Do I say 'Look what life is doing to me?', or do I say 'Look what I am doing to life?' " (Sami Sunchild, San Francisco artist and activist).

Seeing Hands Nepal

One of our first volunteer experiences will be with Seeing Hands Nepal, where we will be spending April and May 2009. Check out their excellent work at their website - http://www.seeinghandsnepal.org/.

When we visited Cambodia in 2006, we discovered and then repeatedly visited a charitable organization (Seeing Hands Cambodia) ... not really for any altruistic reasons, but because we were able to get hour long massages for $4.00. Yeah!!! The organization is really cool, because it trains visually impaired people in therapeutic massage, and then employs them in professional clinics where they can earn a decent living. These individuals would obviously have a hard time getting other forms of employment.

Anyway, as we started looking into different options to volunteer, Evan discovered a sister organization just getting started in Nepal - Seeing Hands Nepal. They were (and are) looking for massage/manual therapists to train visually impaired Nepalese. We applied, were accepted (the first volunteers from the USA) and are set to go in a few months. Evan will be teaching massage techniques, and Andy will be helping with anatomy instruction and with running the clinic.

We'll be in the clinic for 4 weeks, and then have some downtime to see Nepal .... Andy's top to do is an elephant safari in Royal Chitwan National Park to look for tigers and rhinos.

Evan is planning a trip to Bandipur - "Soak up the medieval atmosphere and the views in this living museum of Newari architecture" (Lonely Planet Nepal).

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." (Margaret Mead)

An Open Ended Horizon

We want to make a difference!


We're fed up with the 9 to 5, "making a dying" existence!


We know it's time for a change!

And what a change!!!


A year in the making, preparing, stressing, developing, understanding ....

And now we are ready! In 2009, we embark on our New Life. And we're bringing you all along for the ride.
How did we get here? Well, life as we knew it wasn't working, was it? Working, saving, living for the weekends and 2 week (too weak) vacations. NO! Time to do something different. We learned about working towards financial independence and following our dreams. We learned how to minimize time spent doing mundane work activities to make room for living. And now we are ready to take off.

Our dreams:
1. To create a new way of living - to travel, experience, work, and play as we choose.
2. To be financially free.

A New Year. A New Start. 2009.

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference" - Robert Frost