Making Decisions

It's interesting how something 'comes' to you and all of a sudden your plans change...

That happened to me on Friday, May 30. My rent - the fee for saving my spot for the year at this RV park, so I can return here as frugally as possible in October, after my trek to the Northwest - was due on June 1. Here it is - June 1 - and my plans have changed.

When I get back to Tucson I'll be here just long enough to collect my things out of my storage shed, sell the shed, and head down the road to Deming, NM. Being very concerned about my financial picture, it pained me to have to part with nearly $4,000 to save my spot so I could live here six months out of the twelve I was paying for. I am a member of Loners on Wheels, and they have an RV park in Deming, where I can stay on a monthly basis for half the monthly cost of my current park. And I can have a storage space for one-fourth the cost of what a 'public' storage space would cost. Yes, concern for resources.

So, after making a call to the Loners park to get information, I went to the office to pay my rent for June only. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my rent was less than the published amount because it is 'summer'. And I was further pleased that I am allowed to leave my storage shed on my site, with my stuff in it for a monthly fee comparable to what I would pay at an outside storage facility. For the cost of a standard winter monthly rate I will have my June rent and four months of storage paid for!

Another aspect of this decision is that this park, which is very nice, is mostly made up of residents who are paired - married, living together, etc. - and who are still into living in a regular home, even if it is a park model. Being a 55+ park many of the residents are quite a bit older. The newer folks coming into the park, who are younger, like me, come from the colder states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc. And they are still living the culturally acceptable lifestyle they were brought up with. The thought of living here another six months after my trip was suddenly unbearable! I saw that I needed to be with other RVers, who are also single, and enjoying the friendship of others who have the wanderlust.

Now, the thoughts about New Mexico, Deming, and Silver City and checking things out there weren't new thoughts; however, I'd not made any movement toward that. It seemed that all the pieces finally came together in my brain, and I decided. It was quite an 'aha' moment for me! And after I put things in motion I felt so much better.

In the summer, the folks who live here year-round get together for a potluck dinner every Saturday. Last night, when I was talking about my new plan, I was asked if it wasn't true that everything 'fell into place' because I'd spent time working on it. While I'd had the thoughts before, I hadn't been working on anything in particular. So I feel that things fell into place because that is the door I'm to walk through.

I wrote my most favorite Desert Crone and my friend and beading teacher about my decision. She understands that there may be another 'call' for me in New Mexico. So we will have to spend as much time together as we can so I can learn everything she knows! Just in the last month or so I have become a 'beading fool'! And I've sold two pieces before they were even finished. It's amazing to me how, after almost 64 years of my life, I've discovered beading!

The Desert Crones of Tucson have been my family, and my inspiration. I just recently learned that a member who moved here from New York had the same elders teaching her Native American ways as I did. I came to Tucson via Denver, via Virginia, where I was instructed in Native ways. Our teachers were the same people!!! Awesome...The Crones is where I received my nurture, where I could really be myself and speak of things that most people find irreverent, heretical, and unbelievable. Not these ladies - they are warm and unconditionally loving. I will miss them most of all. Without knowing it they helped me through some of the most difficult times of losing Doc. I will carry their love with me as I begin my new life.