what is living without really living?

first of all i have to say that i feel very lucky to have been able to take this time off and make this trip. it has been life changing for both tyler and i. i think. at the very least it has been eye opening. i was thinking about this today while i wrote in my journal and listened to jolene do my sunday morning show... most people dont really ever live. i have heard it a thousand times and believed that i knew it as true before, but our north american culture is just filled with stuff. working so hard so we can buy more stuff, pay off stuff, or buy better stuff. and why? to impress everyone else? because you think that having the stuff will make you happy? maybe i sound like every person you have ever met who has gone backpacking who starts preaching about our north american life of excess - but i will not preach. i have decided two things. that i do not want stuff to rule my life. and that i want to really live my own life.

we have 6 days left of our adventure. it has been amazing. in germany i started writing blog entries in my phone on notes... but then i discovered that i couldn't paste them i. so i stopped. sorry for the lack of updates. oh well. im in europe.

so far the greatest things i have seen were paris (which i am in love with, and i think it may have forever stolen my heart) and croatia, specifically hvar (which has got the be the best beach spot i have ever been to... plus the history!). i am both ready and not ready to come home. i miss our cats. and i miss some of the simple comforts of home (tyler has been whining about wanting to take a bath). i am feeling like going to work will be kind of fun. but i just don't want to get lost in the daily grind again. i don't want to be a slave to my life.

tyler and i have spent a lot of time talking and dreaming together about what our future will look like. i think we have some things that we both really like the sounds of. and a lot of work to do to get there. but it's a good type of work. the kind that is really for something.

i'll post more about the things we have seen and done once im home and the keyboard isnt miniature.