My husband shocked me Sunday afternoon when, while eating Blizzards at a DQ near Lake Barkley, he suggested in all seriousness that we sell our house and go back to RVing full-time, something we did for a few years starting in 2005. I did not see that one coming.

I actually felt my stomach twinge a little when I first heard his suggestion, and in no time at all my mind was being bombarded with one crazy thought after another: What does he mean “sell the house?” I don’t know that I want to sell our house…I love it. How about my job? I love it. What if our son-in-law gets orders for Fort Campbell next year and our kids come back to Kentucky? Our grandkids would be just down the street. What are going to do with all of our stuff? Yard sale or tag sale? How are we going to get our mail? What about the El Camino we’re restoring? It was the last thing I thought about that night and it was the first thing I thought of when I awoke yesterday morning.

And here I thought our life was pretty good, all things considered. We are semi-retired, the kids have families of their own and it’s just the two of us and our pups, Victor and Biscuit, and we’re blessed beyond measure to be financially free. My garden is in bloom with tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, lettuce, herbs and flowers. We’ve renovated and updated the old house we call “home” to our liking. I’ve got a life here, damn it! To be perfectly honest, my first reaction was to dig in my heels and resist, but then my husband said something that totally brought the idea home. He said, “We can do it now; we might not be able to physically do it in five or ten years.”

How true! I vividly recalled an instance when we were cruising the ICW (the Intracoastal Waterway that hugs the eastern coast of the United States) in the spring of 1994. We had run all day and were approaching the marina where we would spend the night as the sun was beginning to set. A cruising sailboat with two older people aboard was also docking for the night–the wife was attempting to lasso the piling with the bow line as her husband, the helmsman, tried and tried again to get her and the boat as close to the piling without hitting it, a feat made even more challenging with the outgoing tide. They looked to be in their seventies, at the very least. My heart went out to the woman, because I was responsible for the lines, too, and I knew how tired, frustrated and angry she must have been, trying to secure the line around the piling. I remember my husband and I giving each other that knowing look that seemed to say what we were both thinking: Some people wait too long for “some day.” Sometimes it never comes. That memory alone caused me to at least consider the idea of ultimate downsizing and hitting the road.

Though all of the steps in a 12-step program are important, I am making a deliberate effort to actualize the Eleventh Step which states that we “sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for the knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” And so, even though no one was around to hear, I said aloud, “OK, you take it from here. You know what’s best.”

Immediately, a weight seemed to be lifted, and I felt a noticeable sense of peace. The liberation was welcomed and it was almost as if my attitude instantly switched from thinking about all about the “what ifs” to “just put one foot in the front of the other and see what happens.” Certainly, we have a LOT that we still need to talk about, and nothing has been set in concrete. If absolutely nothing else comes of this conversation, it has inspired me to start on something I’ve been procrastinating (actually, a couple of things): sort through and organize all of our files and paperwork, and our closets, too, and get rid of stuff that no longer serves us. And, contrary to my usual modus operandi, I didn’t put off getting started; last night I cleaned out one of my dresser drawers, and that action in and of itself catapulted me into a process whose ultimate result is uncertain.

Only time will tell if whether or not we are headed once again to an alternative lifestyle. But one thing is for sure: this is going to be one interesting journey!