Here's How It Happened
It all started on a cold, gray morning in March. We were sitting at the kitchen table having coffee and reading together, me in my own little world with some book or other, of course, when he looked over his mug and said, “This might sound crazy, but just hear me out . . . “
It was March of 2024, and we had just arrived back home after traveling to Bermuda to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. The trip had shifted something inside of us, and we’d been talking about our complicated feelings ever since. Mostly, we were trying to get honest about how our home on Mount Desert Island, Maine — a huge dream we’d achieved just shy of four years before — no longer fit our family.
His crazy idea was that we could sell our dream home, be 100% debt-free for the first time since our early 20s, and live #ontheroadagain while we searched for a better fit. It was crazy because we had already lived as full-time nomads on the road in our Airstream for seven years, working as digital nomads and worldschooling our kids long before it became the cool thing to do.
It was also crazy because neither one of us wanted to live #ontheroadagain, and our kids certainly didn’t, but as the conversations carried on, we started to realize more and more that we needed to move and didn’t know where exactly we wanted to live or even what exactly would fit us best. The only way we knew to figure it out was to try different places and see what felt right. Still, we were on the fence about all of it. There were so many unknowns, so many things to feel shaky about.
So we kept talking about it, kept researching, and as they say, the rest is history — we spent eight months #ontheroadagain before finding our home. I tried my best to write it all down when I could. Mostly, there were lots of big feelings ⤵
March: Could we really make another big life change? Should we? Do we want to?
April: Seriously?! Are we actually considering this?
May: It’s settled, we're going for it, the possibilities are endless
June: My god, this is a lot of work
July: Oh my goody goodness, our house sold after just three days on the market, there’s no going back now
August: Eek, here we go!
September: This is so fun! We feel so alive, we get to travel a lot again, we’re definitely going to find a waterfront home, or maybe live overseas, everything’s on the table
October: We have no idea what we’re doing, this is just getting harder, what are we doing this for again?
November: My god, what have we done, what are we doing, maybe living on the water isn't meant to be for us, we need to consider farmhouses, big land plots, and other things, everything’s back on the table, I’m so confused
December: Maybe we made a big mistake, we have no idea what to do now, nothing’s working, this whole thing might be a failure
January: We’re learning lessons we needed to learn, but how will we ever figure it out now...wait, holy cow, there’s a house on the ocean in our price range? buying a plane ticket to go see it, is it really possible that we could be living on the ocean this summer?
February: Back to square one, trying not to lose hope, except something feels different this time, show us the way, please, please show us what to do...
March: There’s this house on a mountain in Maine, I think it might be the one, another plane ticket, it feels so right, we’re making an offer, we’re under contract, oh my goodness, I can’t believe we get to move back to Maine!
April: We’re baaaaaaaack!!!
May: HOME (finally, truly, home)
Very early in the process, a friend shared a book with me written by Melody Warnick called If You Could Live Anywhere: The Surprising Importance of Place in a Work-From-Anywhere World. I loved it right away and, of course, wrote a blog about it.
That little book, along with all it sparked for me, is the main inspiration for today’s five little things ⤵
Something beautiful. . .
Although the last eight months were in some ways a lot harder than we thought they’d be, we found a home that fits us so much better than our last one and is bringing us so much joy. (Here’s a link to a little video showing one of the biggest reasons why) But you certainly don’t have to change where you live to be happy, or even to find joy and contentment — those things are an inside job (something I’m even more convinced of after our eight months of #ontheroadagain living took us to nine different Airbnbs, all of them way too expensive and most of them not nearly as comfortable as they looked in photos).
Something fun. . .
I kept so many notes about what I was learning during our #ontheroadagain period of houseless living. Here are a few of my favorites ⤵
Trust that nothing lasts forever, the good and the bad
Sacrifice is inevitable, nothing is exempt from tradeoffs
While it’s tempting to force it, don’t; you have to feel this part, get in touch with your intuition, and learn from this experience if you’re going to truly enjoy what’s next
Uncertainty is expensive, but sometimes necessary if you’re going to trade in the good for the great
Trust that it will be worth it in the end, no shortcuts
Readjustment is endless; nothing we choose will be the right thing forever just the way it is now
Big feelings are okay, it feels easier when you write
If you didn’t believe me before when I said the most important books in your house are the ones you’re writing in your journals, I hope this serves as proof. Start journaling, friend — I’d love to be reading your favorite adventure notes someday.
Something to keep in mind. . .
There’s always a tradeoff. Always. No place is going to tick every single box, so deciding what’s most important is crucial. We made many, many lists along the way about our non-negotiables, wants, needs, and nice-to-haves, and we found those things shifting the more and more work we did to find out what we wanted and needed (and the more Airbnbs we tried).
In the end, we decided that privacy, peace and quiet, access to nature, beautiful views, natural light, and big art studio spaces were worth sacrificing a lot for. In the end, we gladly gave up a chance to buy waterfront property, having a trail in our backyard, daily access to a national park, and even being debt-free to get what was important to us. Not every choice is right for everyone. Thankfully, we don’t need it to be. Each of us just has to know what’s right for us, that’s it.
Something good to read. . .
If You Could Live Anywhere is truly a great read if you’ve wanted to make a big move or travel more but don’t know where to start, as long as you’re up for the scientific approach to figuring out where you want to go next. There’s also another little book I highly recommend for this kind of thing, too — Big Dreams, Big Change, Big Growth — written by yours truly a few years back :)
Something exciting. . .
These days, it truly is possible for almost anyone to live anywhere they want. Especially if you’re one of the lucky folks with enough resources to be reading this email on a computer right now (especially if it’s a tiny computer you carry around in your pocket all day long and call a phone). Don’t believe it? Tell me why. I love chatting about this kind of thing over email.
⊹⊹⊹
That’s it — that’s truly how it happened. Lots of tradeoffs and sacrifices, plenty of work and risky steps, loads of uncertainty and fear, heaps of trust that it would all work out okay in the end, watching in wonder as it unfolded, and so much gratitude that we made it — just like most big dreams, hey?
Wherever you are this week, whatever you’re working on right now, I hope you’re thriving, my friend. And if you ever need someone to chat with about your questions, ideas, hopes, fears, dreams ~ all of it, I’m here.
Always,
Celeste
Me & my book collection. . . waiting for shelves 💛