By the time we reached our 40s, my husband, Dave, and I had built a life we thought we’d always dreamed of.
We lived with our two greyhounds in an over-3,000-square-foot home outside Boston that we owned. We were both hustling and climbing the corporate ladder — he in the tech industry, and I at a law practice.
Then, in 2022, Dave got laid off, and we lost our two dogs to cancer.
That’s when we had the harrowing realization that the life we’d spent years building no longer fit us. Our home now felt far too big, and we felt lost and restless. We desperately needed a change — but first, a change of scenery.
So, we sold our house and decided to spend a year traveling the world as we contemplated our next move.
Our year of travel taught us to slow down and enjoy life
Before hitting the road, I figured out a plan to work remotely. That income, plus Dave’s severance and the money made from the sale of our home, would allow us to enjoy some time away without financial strain.
Our travel goals were simple — see a lot of places, think about what to do with our lives when we returned to the US, and spend time with animals along the way.
Although we’re ambitious, we’ve always found that spending time around animals forces us to slow down. It’s a lesson we’d learned after adopting our dogs, who always seemed happy just to be, sans any hustle.
So, we started our trip on a farm about an hour south of Dublin, where we were able to really mellow out.
One morning, I woke up to find a note from Dave that said he was joining the husband-and-wife farmers to scan the bellies of the pregnant sheep on-site.
I cradled a warm cup of coffee in my hands as I stood behind my husband while he helped the farmers. His smile was the biggest I’d seen in a long time.
Over the next nine months, we visited other countries in Europe like Croatia, Portugal, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
We traveled slowly and established home bases in each place, which allowed us to really relax into the environment. We were able to explore at our own pace, and also had time to consider what our future looked like back in the US.
Whatever was next, we knew it would involve less hustle and more time in the natural world.
Our year off helped us to cultivate the life we always dreamed of back home
After nine months, our hunger for travel felt more than satiated.
We returned to the US with a clear understanding that the life we’d left behind in the States — with a giant home and a constant desire to climb the corporate ladder — was not the one we wanted to cultivate again.
During our travels, some of our most cherished memories included spending time on the farm in Dublin and sinking into the hot springs in Iceland. It was moments like these that helped us realize the life we wanted was slower and more intentional.
So, we downsized to an 800-square-foot home on a lake in central Massachusetts. We even adopted another greyhound — one who’s always eager to sit lakeside with his dads, watching the birds fly by.
A little over a year after we returned, I retired from my law practice to focus on writing, and Dave left the tech industry behind to start a whole new career at a mom-and-pop company.
If traveling for that year taught us anything, it’s that our joy is better accessed with less stuff, less chasing of bigger-and-better opportunities, and more chances to be with the natural world.
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