Eating My Words
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: Celebrating the Spirit of America
By Barbara Sue Canale

Coming out of your comfort zone is tough in the beginning, chaotic in the middle, and awesome in the end… because in the end, it shows you a whole new world.
~Manoj Arora

As I approached mid-life, friends and relatives questioned where I might retire someday. I’d often dreamed of living on an exotic island somewhere, but, in reality, I figured Pat and I would probably stay put in our house on the hill in Jamesville, NY even though it was too big for us now that our children were grown. We had many interesting conversations about places we could consider, but each time I always ended by saying, “I’ll never go to Florida! I hate golf.”

Pat suggested we step out of our comfort zone and travel around the United States to search for the perfect place, but we never found anywhere we both liked. We continued to pour money into our forty-year-old house, grimacing with each check we wrote for landscaping, driveway resurfacing, fireplace maintenance, and snow removal. We were tired of spending money on things we weren’t enjoying, and the cold seemed less kind as each winter passed.

“I’m thinking about watching ocean waves,” Pat said dreamily. (Keep reading)