After A Week Long Send Off, My Round the World Trip kicked off with eight days in Maui visiting my sister Sarah who has split her time between Hawaii and Alaska for many years. What an epic way to start this adventure! There was mist falling when my sister greeted me at the Kahului airport on Maui a week ago, so she teased me about bringing the rain from the mainland. We headed straight for Paia where she presented me with a young coconut and a lei, accompanied by the chant for the gifting-of-a-lei.
A number of circumstances collided recently to compel me to move the Lucky Penny to my property in Walla Walla where I have a ground bound small house called Valencia Cottage. So on Tuesday trusted tiny house movers Linh and Stephanie Pham helped me move the Lucky Penny safely from Portland to my place in Walla Walla.
As I packed up recently in preparation to travel cross country in my Honda Fit, I did some downsizing… It was harder than it had been during my last couple of moves because this time I had more stuff. I’d been living in a bigger space…My apartment was a studio, but it was still about 6 times bigger than the Lucky Penny! I talked with several people about the experience and a handful of them said “oh my goodness, I need to do more of that!” So I’ve decided to offer a 6-week Downsizing Tune Up…
A number of circumstances collided recently to compel me to move the Lucky Penny to my property in Walla Walla where I have a ground bound small house called Valencia Cottage. So on Tuesday trusted tiny house movers Linh and Stephanie Pham helped me move the Lucky Penny safely from Portland to my place in Walla Walla.
On Tuesday, I moved from My Brattleboro Landing Pad into an apartment on the property of my friends Erin Maile O’Keefe and Kevin O’Keefe…Now Erin and Kevin live in their tiny, which is considered a detached bedroom by the town. The house is occupied by some great folks, too, and now I’m in the apartment, which means that I am once again living in a tiny house community. This is the third one I’ve lived in, after Simply Home Community and Going Places.
In early 2020 I traveled to Yestermorrow to teach the 3-day Tiny House Design at Yestermorrow (Feb 2020) course with my friend and colleague Erin Maile O’Keefe… It seems strange to think back on that now, how that was the way we always taught design classes, in real life and in close proximity. Amidst the global pandemic, we pivoted and by June we were able to offer a Tiny House Design (Online) course. It immediately filled and a waiting list was started.
“How are you holding up?” It’s a question I’ve been getting a lot lately. And a question I’ve been asking a lot lately. Even of perfect strangers: the checker at the grocery store, the person I’m video chatting with for tech support, the neighbor at the end of the block sitting on their porch.
I think part of the reason people ask me how I’m holding up is that I live in 100 square feet. And it’s true that there are a couple of challenges with this…
When I was little we used to talk about how cool it would be if we could see people while we were talking to them on the phone. Now it’s the future. Most of the things I did this week involved seeing other people while talking to them, but virtually. It occurred to me, part way through the week, as I was popping in and out of zooms and facetimes and hangouts and phone calls and texts that we’re now living in real virtuality!
“Strange times,” is a phrase I’ve heard a lot this week. And it feels that way. So I’ve been pondering how to act and react in these strange times since it seems we have a stretch of this ahead of us. I’ve decided that since I am one of the healthy (at least for now) and one of the wealthy (at least by world standards) my approach will be to follow best practices regarding social distancing and to find a balance between connecting with others virtually and embracing some mandatory me time to do a few more indoor projects and savor some solitude and reflection. I chose to act with goodwill and good judgement and to hope that others will do the same.
February is upon us and it’s amazing to think that in just two short weeks I’ll be winging my way across the country to teach Tiny House Design at Yestermorrow! Tiny House Design is a long-weekend course that provides oodles of info and inspiration for people to dream, design, and draft up tiny or small homes of their own.
This weekend our Tiny Cohousing Community, Going Places, turned two. It’s crazy to think that we’ve been doing life together for two whole years, but here we are! In a lot of ways, being snowed in worked out even better because we have a brand new community mate named Rosemary and we got to hang out with her in our community for two days.
Yesterday, as has become our tradition, Isha and I went for a hike (this one urban) and recapped 2018 (what was good, what was hard, what we learned). We also shared what we’re excited about and nervous about for 2019. Since I haven’t been sharing with the greater world recently, I figured I’d share a few of the highlights at this point of transition and some excitement about the year to come.
