Sunset at Trebarwith Strand
It’s a strange thing recovering from a long and debilitating illness… it gives you a new perspective on life, or at least it has to me. It’s been 1 year since I recovered for the final time from a 9 month bout of severe sickness and I truly appreciate every day of wellness that I have in this world. Some days are harder to appreciate than others… this morning while I was trying to get the kids to school on time and Alfie’s book bag vanished into thin air and Patrick refused to come out from under the bed and the river of snot from Orla’s nose just wouldn’t stop flowing and was being repeatedly wiped on my shoulder… I didn’t much think about how well I was feeling. But as I pulled up at the school and went to unload them from the bus we call a car and Patrick accidental head butted me on his way out; I did for a moment. And when I got home with Orla and made a cup of coffee and opened my laptop to see emails from the friends I have made who suffered like me, I did for another moment. And later when I watched a video a friend had put together of survivors of the condition and I picked Orla up and we danced and smiled and she rubbed more snot on my shoulder I really truly appreciated what I have. All my senses, full movement of by body, my mind and my health. When every step and spoken word is a struggle for months on end and then suddenly it’s not any more the liberation and sense of ability is overwhelming.
We had our first family holiday in Spain a couple of weeks ago. When we came home we had decided… Lets go travelling. My foot has been getting more and more itchy since I first read The Snail and the Whale and now finally our whale has arrived in the form of perfect timing and perfect health. So we are off… well, next March. We’re sailing away for a year and a day-ish to lands of discovery and adventures. There’s planning and preparation to be done before we jet off and work to be done… but that’s okay, we love a hard graft! In fact we have spent the last few years working our socks off to build a farm business which we will now largely disband until our return. I’ve also worked hard to develop a small charity into a fairly big one, but that’s okay too… I’ll keep up my largely internet based work on the road.
I’m going to blog along the way so you can all join our adventures and learn along with us about the geology, history, wildlife, cultures and lifestyles that we hope to encounter as we cross Canada, America, New Zealand, Australia and Europe. We’ll be learning about ourselves too as we travel with young children and stay on other peoples farms but that’s all part of the journey… self discovery and adventures of our souls. We hope you enjoy the ride!
You can follow me on twitter @MumaDean or on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Adventures-of-Muma-Dean
Adventures of Muma Dean 