Apr 6, 2017
We decided that living far away from everything was a good idea for loads of reasons.
- Our Salukis needed vast spaces to run.
- Housing costs are stupid in California AND said Salukis kept giving us poison oak, regardless of our home’s location in Cali.
- My job was “eliminated” (read; myself & my boss, the president & founder of her company, weren’t included in the hostile takeover of HER company).
- My children all grew up & moved to other places (all but one of the six).
- We started a global business that didn’t require living in a particular place, just a connection to the internet.
- My husband is a Big Wall Rock Climber and travels all over doing that anyway.
What we didn’t consider was what living remotely means when it comes to having reliable internet, having cell reception, living off the grid and how hard that can be, developing community amidst hostile, fearful neighbors (who probably moved here so they could “protect” themselves from all kinds of unsavory sorts… like me).
It’s not easy.
Last night, after my regular Thursday trip into town for my volunteer position helping little kids have fun (this is a 36 mile drive on a 2 lane hwy), I rushed home to feed the dogs and could hardly get the gate closed. The wind was fierce. Like “hard to close the front door with two hands” kind of fierce.
No worries, I’m strong…
Got the dogs fed and settled into dinner for myself and had the notion of logging into my computer to see what sort of fuckery occurred in Washington.
Um … nope. No connection.
It was too dark to see whether the satellite dish was still in place on the roof and frankly, it wasn’t the end of the world to be offline for the night. But, I had a boat load of pressing work to do that required being able to connect and I prayed it would be resolved by morning.
No such luck…
No problem. Got a little breakfast, packed up my business bag and headed up to the National Park entrance area where I could do my work… and I was met with shades of 1996 and the internet. Sloooooowwwwww… doesn’t come close to what happened. Or you could say, fast/slow/fast/slow/fast… sloooowwwww. Somehow I managed to get the car registered, post the shit I was asked to post and get home before the next wave of wind, sleet and snow pelted me.
My work is important to me but my professional life has always taken a back seat to my spiritual & family life. After years of being involved at every level of business (retail, wholesale, consulting, direct sales, writing, teaching, healing… ), I had little to show for it… Financially, that is. My resume is awesome… but meh. Who really gives a shit about that any more?
We get by just fine, but I’m out of real excuses for being marginally successful. Kids are grown, I’m always in a meditative space out here, things feel good. My life is pretty fucking dreamy…

Yet, I’m tired around the edges. The thought of asking anyone if they want a better life seems so banal right now. We are facing the end of the world so most things seem trite. Like making more money.
But it’s not. In fact, right now being a person with more than enough money will be the very person who changes the world in the obvious ways.
YUP… That’s exactly how it will go.
Recently, I was involved in a mad dash to save a community garden. They needed half a million dollars to save it from an evil realtor, but they weren’t getting much help. Just the piddly $5 here, $20 there from well meaning, poor folks on a GoFundMe page. Then a wealthy woman saw what was happening, had met the director of the garden and decided she would go after solving this problem, which simply needed cash. She started to reach out to her network to see who would contribute and make up the difference. In under a month, she rallied enough people in her circle — who in turn reached out to their circle & they made it happen. Now there’s national press about it!
Was the wealthy woman better than the poor fledglings donating their latte money & sharing the info with their equally impoverished companions? No, but she had friends and connections with excessive funds to share. If the barista sort had a huge network and ALL of them pitched in, maybe that would work… But what if all those soulful, artistic folks had more money with which to lead their lives? Wouldn’t they do the same thing as the woman who was already wealthy? If there were more wealthy people with awareness and consciousness, our world would absolutely change for the better.
Just getting by isn’t good enough for me. The primary challenge I had when I was younger was leaving my kids alone. In order to tend to my family, I had to make sacrifices and I chose to make less money and be with my kids. Not any more, they’re adults. Access to the internet gives me a world wide customer/client base & there are no limits now.
Currently, I’m running a business that makes pretty good money for us, but only when I help others. Things are changing. Consumers are behaving differently; malls are failing, online shopping is huge, people spend and invest their money with more consciousness and are more informed, they want their dollars to be spent without compromising others in the spending of it, they want to spend it locally.
What would it be like if more “common” folk were rolling in dough? Look at what some folk do with buckets of money. Can you imagine what the world would be like if people who gave a shit about each other had lots of money?
If you want to be one of those who makes too much money.. Start doing what makes your heart sing, pursue it, grow it, believe in it… Feel how good it feels to have more than enough and give thanks for your abundance BEFORE it happens…
As to the internet connection… didn’t have any for almost a week. Every time I needed to do something online, I had to drive 25 miles to do it. Couldn’t work my business, didn’t write any posts, missed paying a few bills… and I survived just fine.