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'On the Road'

Posted 2/6/18

Editor’s note: Beverly Belury and husband John Hersey, retired business coaches, rented their Fountain Hills home last fall to travel a month at a time to Rome and Napoli, Italy; Palermo, Sicily, …

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'On the Road'

Posted

Editor’s note: Beverly Belury and husband John Hersey, retired business coaches, rented their Fountain Hills home last fall to travel a month at a time to Rome and Napoli, Italy; Palermo, Sicily, Marrakech and Agadir, Morocco. Their next country will be England, where they have landed four pet/house sitting assignments; three weeks in a London apartment and seven weeks in a Portishead, UK house.

They have been writing a blog, “On the Road,” and producing YouTube videos of their journey and experiences. They plan to return home in late August or September before taking off again in October.

By Beverly Belury

We have been officially “On the Road” for a little more than three months and today in particular feels strangely calm and familiar.

We slid into our new month in Agadir and our new reality fairly effortlessly, doing what we have done before: unpack what will be needed for this location, check out the bed, take an inventory of the kitchen and apartment, rearrange the furniture if necessary, throw open the windows if possible, set up the technology, get directions to the grocery store/market and decide what our focus will be.

Our focus in Agadir will be Moroccan cuisine with a couple of side trips and relaxation.

Living with less makes it easier to experience more. We each have a carry-on suitcase. John also has a backpack and I have a side bag I can sling over my shoulder or on my back.

We have no desire to carry or have more and have actually discussed the possibility of eliminating more stuff. For instance, John is considering letting go of his camera and focusing on just using the phone to take and edit video and pictures.

I have learned it takes very few things to live.

1. It takes imagination, curiosity and energy to live well.

2. Slow down, be patient and show kindness to everyone (even the snake charmer) no matter what they look like – a sincere smile is easy and can close the gap between you and the other person. I am now convinced that a smile makes the world better and the people of the world closer.

3. New friends are populating our life. We have met some extraordinary people who are traveling through life, willing to be vulnerable to others. The people we have met are caring, passionate and curious people, and willingly share who they are, not necessarily what they do.

We are keeping a diary of who we have met; some we will meet again and some have simply been a memorable moment, a good laugh, sage advice or insight. Everyone has something to give.

4. The spectrum of emotions has been vibrant and varied; frustrated, bitchy, exuberant, thrilled, gleeful and so much more.

Without the insulation of our comfortable life and distraction of our things, feelings are more apparent and clear.

And I own my feelings here. It’s difficult to blame my partner or community or politics. They are all my feelings being generated and expressed by me. I am much better at handling them –calling a “time out” on myself, deep breathing, going for a walk or taking a nap or watching a mindless episode of “Designated Survivor.”

Note from John: I have noticed that I am either experiencing more emotions or I am just noticing them more. Fear, sadness, joy, thoughtfulness, anger, seem to come-up more regularly. At home, I never or rarely noticed. But as Bev said, we own these emotions and can’t put them away in a box and ignore them, at least not for very long.

5. Confidence that I can still do it. As I have matured I have defaulted to John, my partner, to do many things and am out of practice. I feel excited to find a store alone, fumbling through the language barrier and unfamiliar products, making change and dealing with mistakes.

I was in Marrakech buying some dinner items at the corner sundry shop. I went to check out and realized I didn’t bring enough dirham because I had converted our money in my head to Euros. Oops. The clerk and I smiled as I replaced a bunch of items.

6. “It’s a small world” was an expression I first heard at Disneyland when I was a wee bit of a kid. It’s a small world because we are all human beings, being human, and it’s a big world because it’s happening in an unbelievable myriad of breathless experiences.

We have been pushed, shoved, confused. We have had long waits, lost luggage, mediocre accommodations, mistakes in scheduling, rain, cold, sickness and we are happy.

John: This is one of the conflicting feelings I have noticed. On the one hand, I am rather enjoying the good, bad and ugly of this journey. On the other hand, there have been a few times when I pinch myself and wonder what the heck I am doing in Morocco.

When we decided to take this on, most of our friends said “how’s John with this?” Answer? “Not sure. We’ll let you know.”

Although the jury is still out, I am enjoying the entire process more than I expected. Remember, Bev has done this before and is rediscovering her travel muscle. This is entirely new for me, so I am discovering that I actually have the capacity to do more things and go more places than I thought possible.