Doing my Thing

Joint decision-making is hard. Particularly in many cases where two careers paths full of stakes in the ground are in competition. One advantage of my flexibility post work was that I could happily choose based on other constraints. 

Gemma was going on a tour of libraries to study how they were changing. Two of those stops were Scandinavian countries, and the balance in North America. I tagged along! (and changed/added a couple of stops). She would go to the libraries by bus, train, or car to get there quickly. I would walk to intentionally get there slowly. 

Urban hiking is cost-effective (money-wise) when you have the luxury of time (a different form of wealth). It allows you to experience places in a very different way. I could still write my blog (swartdonkey.blogspot.com), but it would be flavoured by the experiences of wherever I was. 

Instead of the rush of a traditional holiday which can be very expensive, where you feel obliged to pack as much in as possible, I could breathe. I didn’t view it as a normal holiday. I was just doing my thing in a different location. I didn't need a holiday from this way of life! 

I liked sitting in coffee shops and reading about the places I was in. Letting that inspire my next post. Seeing how that connected to and influenced the path my thoughts were on. 

While I was in Vancouver, I went to have coffee with an old colleague I used to ponder with in work breaks. He described the world as complex, random, and ambiguous. That struck a lasting chord with me.

Walking the Bridge