Well, I’m not even sure where/how/if to start. What an incredible year it’s been since I flew out of Australia to go to London to see Dylan 12months ago, and ended up staying and traveling much longer than planned. After selling up almost everything I owned. When I was full of angst and exhaustion and frustration. The desperate need to just Runaway, but fearful of owning almost nothing and walking away from everything I had “worked for” for the past 50 years and just “wing-it”. It effectively turned into a Runaway Lifestyle.

UK 3 times/2months, Italy twice/3 months, Hungary 2.5 weeks, France 2 weeks, Southern Spain 3months, Malta 1 week, then Melbourne for 2weeks and now back in Brisbane. Some of the most spectactular scenery and buildings I have ever seen. Big beautiful cities and quiet scenic contemplation. Xmas, New Years and a range of other spectacular and unique celebrations. And days tromping through lush greener in silence. Many different personal adventures in each area.

Seeing Dylan perform for the first time in years, most notably in Covent Gardens, but with everything having special meaning. Celebrating his 25th, the first birthday I have seen him for in 8years. Meeting his lovely girlfriend, and being hosted and shown around London in the way only Dylan knows best. And then the privilege of coming home and seeing my family. All important. But not much moreso than coming home to a sprytly 90year old mother whom we thought was dying before I left; and a beautiful 8month old grand-niece who was supposedly not a medical possibility.

And SO importantly, a gazillion BEAUTIFUL people, welcomed me into their homes and their countries, and trusted me with the ultimate privilege of loving of their cats, dogs, birds, snakes, chameleons and fish. Painting houses, cooking meals, taking people places, looking after children, nutrition & lifestyle consultations and all sorts of things in return for food, accomodation, and sometimes some spending money. Hostels, bnb’s and homes. Those who bumped into me in random moments over coffee or on buses/trains/plains and are still with me if Facebook-land, or connected via WhatsApp and I hope will stay with me forever. But they will all stay with me forever, even if I never see them again. People who kept an eye over me when dodgy shysters were around, whom I felt safe with, even though I was traveling solo overnight on buses full of men. A million kindnesses in a million places. Ironically, today of all days, I am having a coffee with one of my Italian bnb hosts, who has just arrived in Brisbane; and I hope I can repay some of those kindnesses for her.

The biggest take-homes for ME:

– People are great. The media/Govts is deceptive. The impersonal nature of internet, allows people to display their worst. In the absence of most other interactions, that is the only input we get. When you get to interact with people WITH NO AGENDAS, you find out how kind and giving and beautiful humans are.

– Minimalist living is fantastic. I understand that not everyone wants to live as I do, and basically only own a suitcase & move all the time. I just hope everyone can find away to declutter, downsize and really start to understand what “stuff” they ESSENTIALLY need. The real value is that once you get down to that, your cost of living plummets, the amount of hours you need to work to support youself plummets, and you regain the most invaluable things of all – your TIME and HEALTH and your CONNECTION with people, nature, spirit and soul. It has not made a small difference to me; it has been everything. To not just go through the motions of acquisitions, achievement, working, buying stuff and experiences, to find ways to “productively” fill up our lifetime, but to live simply and Simply LIVE

And finally, about letting go. Of everything I had. Of almost all the possessions I had. All the need to organise and pioritise and book in and DO. And replace it with going with whatever presented itself and every moment of each and every day. It was not unusual for me to not know where I would be sleeping the next night, let alone the next week; and then sorting out travel on the fly, to get there. To decide to spend the day visiting a few locations and end up stopping at the first one because of meeting someone or seeing something amazing and just wanting to stop and live that moment longer; and I could. Incredible synchronicities of timing and of people. Signs everywhere that eveything was in place. The best things just came because I gave it space to come in. I had heard of that concept many times & didn’t realise how far away I was from actually was. The best things happened in the million spaces oF what appeared to be nothing of note. Accommodation happened when I needed it; food came from all sorts of sources when I wasn’t expecting it; and while I hardly needed, or spent, much actual money, money arrived in time to cover the gap.

So, where to from here? No idea. I know I want to keep living in the style I do. I love being a “homeless bum” by choice (global nomad if you want me to sound more sophisticated). For now it suits me well and I love it. I am looking forward to cuddling more fur-balls and other critters, in Australia and hopefully again one day, overseas. Who knows, one day, I may even find the right male of the human species to spend some precious time with – that would be nice. I am doing courses in trading course and in teaching English as a second language to keep the little $$s I need, coming in; along with a little health/nutrition/lifestyle coaching along the way, as presents itself. I hope to be able to teach others about decluttering and minimalising if they ask me to. And I hope to develop more ways that I can “work” for the essentials that I need in life as a priority, rather than for money. To change the paradigm of working for money & “stuff” for me. I’m just re-vamping my website to reflect all these things, to use as a contact point for all the people I meet on my journey. And for others to follow along if they want some ideas for their own life.

I am exceptionall grateful that I discovered sooner, rather than on my deathbed, that life doesn’t have to be so darned busy and complicated. We can just step off. We can live simply, to Simply LIVE.