Intention – The Pursuit of Life

February 9, 2018 / 0 Comments

2018 | A New Year

“Hope Smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’…”

What a year – 2017. What a relief that it is behind us. It’s been quite a bit more than a year since I’ve posted on this blog, and one of my first resolutions is to get back to things that bring me joy, including musing about life on this blog. 2017 was for me a low point (more on that in a later blog), so I’ve got high hopes that this new year will be happier. And that starts with a few resolutions that I’ve made. I’m not a huge believer in strict resolutions, but I think the new year is always a good time to take a moment to reflect on life and realign our behaviors with our hopes for how we’ll live life. Here are some of my resolutions and how I plan to implement them. Read more

October 19, 2016 / 4 Comments

A New Adventure | Moving Home to Florida

Article Circle, Alaska

What an incredible sabbatical this has been. We have been on the road exploring the West for 7 months and our road trip has recently come to an end. I am in mourning. BIG TIME. I have loved this time for us to be free, to explore, to see the most beautiful, varied, breathtaking landscapes that our country has to offer, all on our own time without a schedule, without normal everyday stresses, without any strings attached. It has been a dream – that is the only way to describe it – and it already seems like a dream. Like it didn’t happen. I have to remind myself that it did happen and we were so lucky to have been able to take some time out of real life to explore and satisfy some wanderlust for a while. If you think it has gotten the wanderlusting out of our systems, you are sadly mistaken. It has only whetted our appetites for more travels, more meeting new people, more adventures, more crafting our lives to be what we want them to be. But now it’s time to put down some roots and get back to reality, as much as that pains me. And so we have moved back home to Florida!

Florida life

September 12, 2016 / 1 Comment

Live With Intention | Building Your Tribe

Rendezvous Island, British Columbia

I love the idea of building a tribe and collecting people consciously and intentionally. One of the most important life decisions that we can make is who we choose to surround ourselves with. Several weeks back we spent some time with new friends at their amazing home on a tiny island off the coast of British Columbia. We were having lots of inspiring and insightful life discussions, my favorite kind of chat, and a few times they mentioned the idea of collecting people along the journey of life. They sort of rephrased it and said – well not collecting people, as if that somehow sounded strange. And I thought – what’s wrong with collecting people? I love it. It is one of the infinite reasons that traveling is my absolute favorite thing to do. I collect people I meet when I travel as some people like to collect t-shirts from the places that they visit. It is vitally important to be thoughtful and intentional about collecting the people that you include in your tribe – so how do you do it? Here are 5 types of people who should be in your tribe.

1. Those Who Will Lift You Higher

September 6, 2016 / 1 Comment

Denali National Park

We spent a lovely few days in Denali National Park and Preserve, probably Alaska’s most popular national park, in the South Central part of Alaska. Certainly it is Alaska’s most visited park if you don’t count the hoards of people who briefly dip their toes into Glacier Bay National Park from their massive cruise ships. Filled with wide open spaces, beautiful mountain ranges and roaming wildlife, we were excited to finally get to Denali, which we’ve heard so much about.

August 12, 2016 / 3 Comments

Women Are Adventurous Too

Women can be and are adventurous too. And that doesn’t make us an anomaly. If I have to hear one more time “You like to do this?! I would never get my wife out here!”, I might lose it. On this road trip we have met lots of people from all over the country and the world, from all walks of life, taking lots of different kinds of road trips. Over and over and over again, Ryan has been congratulated (almost exclusively by men) on finding himself a wife who would agree to a trip like this – the implication being that women aren’t supposed to like to do these kinds of things; outdoorsy, adventurous, rugged things. “Wow you’ve got yourself quite a wife, I could never get mine to live in such a small camper! She couldn’t live without her kitchen or her bathroom mirror!” Nobody is looking at me wondering how I managed to get my husband out on the road like this. Now there’s nothing wrong with not wanting to go camping and not wanting to live out of a tiny camper spending your days hiking and fishing. I know plenty of people for whom this would be miserable – both men and women. The problem is that solely because I’m a girl, people assume that these aren’t supposed to be my hobbies, and I’m not supposed to want to go adventuring and wandering like this.

Arizona sunset from the camper, Sonoran Desert

July 11, 2016 / 5 Comments

Life on the Road | June Digest

Hey Marmot, you’ve got something in your teeth! 😉

How on Earth is it July already?! We’ve been on the road for 4 months now, and still loving every minute … okay maybe not loving it when the rain’s been pouring on us for a bit, but we will take some rain if it means lovely waterfalls, rainbows and bright sunny days come afterwards! We are now embarking on the part of the trip that I have eagerly anticipated the most – Alaska! But for now, here is the tally of facts and figures from the last month – June 10th through July 10th:

June 30, 2016 / 8 Comments

The Pursuit of Balance | The Kids Question.

I love kids with a passion I usually reserve for hot cheese, miniature chairs, and Prince concerts, but I feel no stress to reproduce simply because of a fear of withering eggs. – Olivia Wilde

We get the kids question A LOT and I love this quote from Olivia – she captures the sentiment pretty well if you ask me. With lots and lots and lots of talk about biological clocks and a woman’s age and fertility [which oftentimes comes up with near or perfect strangers, never ceasing to boggle the mind], can we just all agree that we are collectively tired of talking about it?! The way the conversation almost always goes for me is this: Are you married? [yes.] Do you have kids? [no.] How long have you been married? [3.5 years] How old are you? [Oh, early thirties.] When are you going to have kids? [Not sure – vague next few years reference.] Don’t worry, you have time. [Ok, thanks perfect stranger for that reassurance] or Oh, if you want to have more than one, you should think about getting started – you never know how long it will take [stranger then launches into stories about all the people they know who have had fertility issues].

June 28, 2016 / 0 Comments

Insta-Lately

Cascade Locks, Oregon, Teardrop Camper

Here are some recent Instagram snaps from @thepursuitof_life! If you aren’t following along and would like to see more of our day-to-day wanderings, head on over to Instagram to follow!

La Push, Olympic National Park, Washington

June 22, 2016 / 7 Comments

100 Days On the Road

Well we have officially been on the road for 100 days! Well a couple more than that by now. Our 100th day fell on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and we spent the day sea kayaking around San Juan Island in very windy seas but beautiful sunny weather, searching the horizon for signs of Orcas or other whales or dolphins. We didn’t see any whales unfortunately, but spotted a number of Bald Eagles, including some mating activity, and had a lovely time exploring the western coast of San Juan Island, and getting a workout in to boot.

So, as we celebrate this milestone of 100 days into this grand adventure, here are some random thoughts from me.

June 17, 2016 / 3 Comments

TinyHouse | Portland, Oregon

TinyHouses are all the rage these days, and so we jumped on the bandwagon! And LOVED IT! You guys sure loved the Instagram photo of the TinyHouse we rented in Portland, Oregon, too. It is my most loved, most appreciated photo so far. And by popular demand, in fact, very demanding demand, here’s a post about our experience staying in the TinyHouse in Portland.

TinyHouse Interior, Portland, Oregon

The Pursuit of Life

Tag: Intention (page 1 of 3)