The Journey Back...

There's nothing quite like a cross-country move, a new (smaller) house, and job changes all around to really bring this whole voluntary simplicity thing into focus, or not. Moving is expensive, culling through your belongings - when you already think you've simplified things - is exhausting, and change - for me at least - is unnerving.

And yet, the chance to start a new chapter of our lives in a new place - closer to my family - and to work on redefining myself professionally yet again is something that at once excites me and terrifies me beyond belief.

But that's what I'm learning about voluntary simplicity. It's not about perfection or ease. It's about balance, and progress, and some days being so heart-wrenchingly honest with yourself that you wake up next to the person you love more than anyone in the world and realize that you are about to tell him that the place you've been calling home doesn't feel that way the second you step beyond the comfort of your house and out into the world. And that you want to think about maybe, somehow, someway considering moving back home. And it's about the moment he says yes, even though you know how terrifying that might be for him to do.

And you move forward together, remembering that the journey is long and the road is windy, but that you're in it together and for that you are forever grateful.