The Things You Love Most Will Also Drive You Crazy

The road home. A commute worth taking. 

I was given this advice when I was dating Dave. It’s has wrung true in so many areas of my life and this experience is certainly fitting right in.

For example, I LOVE where we live. I drive out of town, 8 minutes up a steep, winding mostly dirt road through dense trees in the jungle and arrive at our “retreat” at the top of the hill. Arriving here is an exhale each and every time. Time slows down when we’re home and it’s hard to want to leave to drive all the way into town where it’s busy and sweaty. AND YET, living outside of town can be a bit inconvenient and the density of the jungle invites the incredible biodiversity around us to be an intimate part of our lives.

I’ve learned I can be simultaneously calmer and more content than I’ve ever been and not wanting to leave a place while also feeling on edge about what’s around me and wanting to run to the nearest air conditioned metropolitan high rise.

Leaf or insect?

The open air living is pretty idyllic. Every morning we open the doors and feel the fresh breeze blow through the house. We spend the vast majority of our time at home sitting outside under the huge awning with the breeze and view enhancing everything we do.This also, obviously, invites a few of the locals into the house, but armed with a bit more jungle knowledge of when to open and close the doors, we’re managing with a higher degree of success keeping the bugs where they belong, than we were initially.

I’m endlessly fascinated by the bugs here. I started to take pictures of them, wanting to document each one, but the variety has already gotten overwhelming and I simply quit on my photo mission. I love looking at them, and I’m blown away by the diversity. I just wish I had to go farther than my front porch to admire them all.

See..the struggle is real.