serenaThere was the first, flip decision to do it, followed by the second, more serious decision to actually do it, and then the long third beginning, composed of weeks of shopping and packing and preparing to do it.
–Cheryl Strayed, Wild
In her beautiful book, Wild, Cheryl Strayed was talking about backpacking the PCT, but those sentences perfectly summed up the act of leaving.
The weeks of shopping, packing, preparing was the hardest part, and probably where all but the most tenacious falter.
The packing list seemed deceptively short. Each category had a hundreds of items to consider, find, and pack.
Food waiting in bins. We basically packed a good portion of our house.
Amidst all this chaos, I decided that I really needed my own space. One area where every pencil, every millimeter was under my control, even if only for a few days.
That is the journey.