Happy New Year and a little dose of reality from Julie

January 1, 2008 by Julie.

well we got through christmas. I have a pretty big family, with pretty many kids so I did watch wrapping paper get ripped off of presents and make its way to a plastic garbage bag…and winced but, well, it’s christmas, we want to feel everybody smiling and not everyone is ready to go all garbage free at the same time…

I am sitting in the upstairs room at my mom’s house in Louisville, KY., amongst a litter of clothes, books, papers, and things. As much as we seem to have pared down our lives and our belongings for this trip, and have indeed been living on not-a-whole-lot, there’s no escaping the fact that we still own a whole lot of of crap. It’s just not with us physically right now. It’s waiting for us in places like mom’s house, mark’s sister’s house, and our storage facility in Edison, New Jersey.

I have so much to talk about and so much to say but am biting my tongue until I have the go-ahead from the boys to write openly about what is happening on this trip right now.
For now i will say this: I will be getting in the car tomorrow, along with my clothes and things, and the boys, minus some trappings, and plus a whole bunch of junk mail collected by our families for us since we began the trip. I will be in the back seat as we drive to Tennessee where we will see what we can see. By then, we will hopefully have our latest video out - our 6-mo check-in, our reassessment at the halfway point of this yearlong trip, and then I can start to be honest again in a way that I haven’t been able to be for a few months now. This isn’t a bad thing.

It’s complicated, but the last few weeks have found me losing enthusiasm for life on the road. My back has gone out twice in 3 weeks, to where I could hardly stand up or sit down for days and spent hours lying flat with ice, hoping for relief, making myself even more stressed out. (Thank God we happened to be staying in the homes of humans who were absolutely understanding souls. Thanks to Tom, Hoi and Mom! and thank goodness I bought a crazy back brace for Ben which I have been using pretty much constantly.) Long hours, lack of exercise, no down time and constant wading through often disturbing news to get to the encouraging stuff, has taken its toll on me after 5 months on the road. When icestorms in Kansas forced a slower pace, and then the holidays arrived at Mom’s, I felt my brain wanting to SLOW DOWN to such an extent that it became difficult to write ANYTHING. I haven’t written in 2 weeks, I think! See, all I have been wanting to write about is personal and not YERT-related…or, rather, it is YERT-related but it is not to be shared yet. You’ll see.

I still think the trip is a good idea and that the work is still relevant and incredibly important and timely. It’s just - I have some things on my mind…like family…and so my mind is split between the two, and I have needed to take some time to sit and DO NOTHING. So, here I am back at the computer, gearing up for the 2nd half of this trip. I can’t believe we’re leaving tomorrow. lol.

I will try to catch us up on our travelogs soon so that we have a good record of what we did in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and KY but for right now I am only writing to say Happy New Year to those of you who happen to be checking in. I hope that this year brings us all much creativity and courage and renewed energy to accomplish whatever goals we deem important enough to endeavor. I am not sure but I think my New Year’s Resolution is: To practice optimism. (How’s that for vague?)

Also i want to add that, if you are looking for some inspiring writing online, I’d like to recommend Annie Leonard’s website, the Story of Stuff and my very favorite environmental blog: No Impact Man by Colin Beavan in NYC. I think they are both simply brilliant.

Thanks to all of you who have been watching. Stay tuned as YERT keeps searching for great answers in 2008, and please keep the ideas coming!

Have a Happy and Blessed New Year,
julie

Posted in Travelog, Issues, Julie | 1 Comment »