Are You Listening To Your Inner Voice?
Over 20 years ago my mother and I sold nearly everything we had, piled the rest of it into the hatchback of my car and with my infant daughter in the back seat drove from the East Coast towards the West. We had the city of Bakersfield in mind. Bakersfield was my call. My mother had chosen California and told me to pick a city. I decided on Bakersfield because my favorite group at the time (Van Halen), had relocated there when they moved to the U.S. from the Netherlands. Not much more behind the simplicity of my choice. Or so I thought.
Several days later we arrived in California and found Bakersfield to be dry and rough on all edges. It didn’t look like a place we could be happy in. I clearly remember standing just off the highway outside of a phone booth, the hot Santa Anna winds rushing by as my mother and I looked at each other pondering what was next. At the top of the freeway ramp was a sign. The west arrow said Los Angeles. The east arrow said Palm Springs. My mother looked at it, said, “Let’s try Palm Springs,” and got back into the car. We drove to the edge of the town and checked into a weekly inn. When that week was up we were unable to pay more but my mother had convinced the inn owner that she would be finding a job shortly and so he allowed us to stay. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that I knew she would find a job. That was just who she was. She did what she needed to do and never cared to pay attention to the so-called abnormality of where she came from, what she was doing at the time or where she might be heading.
Within a week she had a job in Palm Springs entertainment fund raising circles. She was hired to solicit celebrities to appear at events. Given a list of agents she set about cold calling them to get their clients to come to Palm Springs for golf tournaments and fancy parties. Had she ever done this type work before? No, but again, that’s just who she was. She could adapt to just about any situation and make it work. Quickly she began to make a good living and soon we had a nice rental home around the corner from that inn. Things moved forward. One afternoon my baby had a febrile seizure and was rushed to the emergency room. While there we encountered a young doctor who would fall hard for my mother. They would soon marry and be together until the day she died in 2005.
Today is my mother’s birthday. As I sat down to blog about the places that I would like to live outside of the US, part 2 to last weeks post, I realized that to some it might seem odd that I haven’t researched these places at length. I’ve never been to any of them and I really don’t feel it necessary to do so beforehand. I’ve never considered it important to do a lot of thinking about a place before I moved there. In my past the only thing I’ve really considered vital about a place was its school system. That was for my daughter and even then it never stopped me from moving to a city, it only dictated what neighborhood I would try my best to get into for school assignments sake. I learned from my mother that you don’t have to start with a lot, you just have to be ready to move forward and never allow yourself to believe that next week will be worse than the one before it . And even if it is, let that be a surprise rather that what you could have convinced yourself would be true. Then you keep stepping.
When thinking of leaving the country, I suppose that I could be concerned with cost of living comparisons, human rights responsiveness, whether a country is into green living, if their dollar and government is solid or if I can get around without being kidnapped or shot. What I am more concerned about though, is whether my future country and city calls me. If you think about it and remove all the logic around who you are and what you do, you know you understand what I mean. You can feel what I am saying is true. Look back at your life. Do you remember the calls that came your way? Did you listen? There is a structure to my journey and the experiences they bring to my life. A structure that I can look back on and clearly see the framework laid out behind me. This decision led to this. That turn lead to there. All I had to do was listen. Now you and I can do the same and be open to accept there is a framework just as remarkable stretched out in front of us.
Listen to the calls.
Listen.
Don’t be afraid.
What places have been calling me?
Hope Town, Abaco Islands Bahamas (link)
Belize City, Belize (link)
Vancouver, Canada (link)
Sydney, Australia (link)
Buenos Aires, Argentina (link)
London, England (link)
Ubud, Indonesia/Bali (link)
And when the time comes I’ll know which will be the first place to go —because I will listen.
