"Life is like playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on."
Samuel Butler
For us, it all started as a question.
Well, truthfully it started as a feeling that something wasn’t right that grew over years and years until it was brought into attention by a question.
“What do we want life to look like in 5 to 10 years?”
Seems standard, but behind this question was the fear that if we didn’t stop, acknowledge where we were in life and where we wanted to be, that some unknown force would land us (or worse, keep us) in a place that we didn’t really want to be in.
We were fine with having full time jobs. We had both worked for most of our lives.
We were fine to live in a place with the coldest winters on earth. (ok not really, but we had all of our lives and would have to keep hot holidays in the mix)
Wherever 5-10 years was, we determined in that moment to be there by choice.
And thus “intentionalism” was born.
Intentionalism: a word that, as the red squiggly underline of my spell check indicates, isn't a common word, but somehow capsulates what would be our new philosophy on life.
And as with any new path, an old one must be left behind to explore it. Old habits, old mindsets, and even old comforts.
Intentionalism: The lifestyle of being intentional with belongings, relationships, money, time, passions, and the willingness to move away from the status quo to carve your own path to make that lifestyle a reality.
We aren’t minimal enough to be minimalists.
We aren’t wild enough to be sojourners.
But somehow are aware enough to feel the busy,
Awake enough to hear the dangerous lullaby of routine turning days, weeks, and months into a meaningless blur,
Fortunate enough to have options,
Purposeful enough to see the need for change,
And daring enough to do something about it.
And what started as a question turned into a lifestyle, but before it did we had to take a hard look at our core values and face our own hypocrisy.
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