Page 18 - Sonoma County Gazette August 2019

By Mo McElroy
My late friend Autumn once instructed me to “ Become Portable.”
The “tidying up” movement is the current rage, but Autumn was way ahead
of the game, my game anyway. The nugget was to unburden me in the physical sense, and it manifested with tasks to perform starting cleaning the garage.
My usual method was rearranging stuff and not dealing with the details; just dusting, sweeping, but all the crap was still. It just looked tidied up.
This instruction came with a fierce determination to get rid of about 70%
of my possessions, and they are gone! Over the last few years, sweeping and weeping through every room in my house, garage, and attic, the rooms are now hotel-grade with precision made beds and empty drawers and closets.
This lightness feels good with more options, space, clarity, & efficiency.
The other day while searching for my vehicle repair receipt, it appeared in two minutes instead of the former two hours, in my tidy new green folder labeled “Car Repair” verifying that the spark plugs which were about to be replaced in my Chevy are brand new which saved me a chunk of change.
Is that the end goal? Who knows, but small moments like this feel delicious.
The house purging is complete. Now what?
I bought a 30-foot RV. Stepping into it gives me goosebumps, chills, and waves of happiness. For Mother’s Day, Bonnie gave me a book called “Living the RV Life.” Each page feels like a Holy Grail of “Become Portable.”
One RVer who purged all his possessions and traveled for a year shares in the book, “Time enables the things we love. We figured we couldn’t create time, so we had to discover a way to find the time we so desperately wanted. We don’t know who came up with the idea, but for some reason we got it stuck
in our heads that we could leave it all behind, take some time for ourselves
and tour the country, devoting ourselves to ourselves. We went from inertia to movement. If we did it, so can you. Just shedding everything we owned took an emotional toll. Things hold onto you as much as you hold onto them.“
Not only physical things but lifestyles can hold us back too.
Because of a single startling incident, Autumn’s whispers also gave me courage to become portable in my work. When my new job began in 2012
as President of the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce, the Press Democrat published the announcement. I eagerly opened it and to my astonishment, on the other side of the page, was Autumn’s obituary. Our stories mingling in the light through the delicate paper. I realized she had my back and always would, so the words she left behind became an even more powerful mantra.
18 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 8/19
Adventures. The time has come. The burdens are gone. The children are ready. The vehicle has arrived. And the possibilities are endless.
Eighteen months later I stepped out on my own and became professionally portable. Now in seven years of being a sole proprietor who works 100% remotely, this lifestyle seems to coincide with a possible RV life.
My maiden RV voyage was five miles to Casini Ranch Campground where camp helper “Bob the Pirate” mentored me on how to turn on my lights, master the propane, hook up water and sewer lines, and park the beast.
I savored pistachio ice cream for breakfast, Bob Dylan blasted through the epic surround-sound stereo system. What could be better than this?
Then, a text came through from my girls saying they wanted to road trip in the RV to Disney in December with our new grandbaby. A jolt of happiness caused me to look up and there, out my window, a little girl covered in pink from head to toe was riding her matching pink bicycle around and around the campground with a huge grin on her face. She was me, my children, and my grandchildren. A wellspring of the pure joy of childhood freedom was right there, traveling from a warm feeling in my heart to tears in my eyes.
Mo McElroy lives in Guerneville and would love to connect with Gazette readers at mo@momcelroy.com