Living off the grid has connotations.  For some, it is seen as just a benign lifestyle choice; an appreciation for nature or a respite from the hurly burly.  For others it is perceived as a bit of a moral choice to live more simply or less materially – sort of like being a vegan or ‘going green’.  I am sure there are other ‘points of view’ on it depending on the person.  And, for many, there is the implication that the off-the-gridder has ‘abandoned’ society and gone feral in a bid to survive the coming apocalypse.  Or something like that.  Something desperate, something primal.

All of those are reasons to change as we have done but they miss the most obvious reason: change for the sake of it.

None of those things listed first above were my primary motivation. My primary motivation was boredom.  I like change more than stability.  Change is my muse.

Sally and I had done the cul-de-sac to death.  We had lived on boats, in apartments and houses – even mansions.  We had traveled.  We had pursued a variety of career choices, too. We have, in fact, enjoyed a series of life changes without any of them being imposed on us by family, health or politics.  Those were all life-altering choices and we chose them freely.

For us, it was about interest, learning, curiosity, personal growth and the exercise of freedom.  It was not philosophical in any particular way other than in the sense of learning, meeting manageable challenges and feeling alive.  In a word: change.

If that continues to hold true for us, then we are likely to change again at least once more, maybe two more times given that each ‘lifestyle’ change so far has taken about ten years to cycle through.

But I have a feeling that the need for ‘changing it up’ is not quite as true for us anymore.  It may just be our age.  After a while of living, especially one that we considered was full and satisfying, there is the sense of ‘having done it’.  Been there, done that.

It may be that this is so far and away the best place to live that the big search is over.  We have been looking for something and now we have found it – whatever it was.  Now, maybe, the searching will be for small improvements only; refinements on a theme, as it were.

Or it may be that the world seems to be going to hell in a hand-basket and who needs any part of that!?

I don’t know.  I do know that I am more content than ever before.  I do know that this lifestyle suits me better than most other things, places and activities, especially at this age.  And I do know that it seems like the world is a very hot hand-basket these days.  But I also know that I have felt that satisfaction before and it eventually changes to wanting something different.

If those same old feelings will again revisit us, what could the next thing be?