I Live in a Camper, and I Camp on a Boat

That occurred to me the other day and I found it kind of an odd thing. I live in a camper and I camp on a boat. I think I will start introducing myself that way. "Hello, my name is Holly. I live in a camper and I camp on a boat. The boat's name is Mustang Sally, but my name is Holly....."
I really don't like the name of the boat, at least I didn't until I was introduced to "Sally O'Malley" from SNL. I cannot recommend her to you here because I probably should go repent and say some hail Mary's for even watching her, let alone liking her. "I'm Sally O'Malley and I'm 50 years old and I like to kick and stretch and kick and I'm 50 years old!" Anyway, she made the name of our boat more palatable to me. Mustang Sally. Yea.

So we live in an RV and to add to the stigma, we have a little foofy dog. We not only have a foofy dog, but we talk baby talk to her. Yup. This is your lucky day, folks. I'm putting it all out there. I have become the people that I used to make fun of. So be careful who you laugh at. I'm just saying....

If you had talked to me 10 years ago I would not have seen any of these developments in my future. But that's the way life is, isn't it? We kind of just live and it unfolds and we find ourselves in all kinds of unpredicted situations. So what do we do once we find ourselves there? We can fight for things the way they used to be. We can be depressed about the past, or about all that we lost, and miss the blessings in the "now". We can strive and manipulate and try to maneuver ourselves back into what we thought was the good life. Sadly, all of that activity might just cause us to miss what we have been given right now, this day. And it also might keep us from moving into our future.

Sure, sometimes we miss having a house. In fact, we often drive around admiring great old bungalows and cute little cottages and we still look at old run down properties with a vision for their potential. The really bizarre thing about living in a 5th wheel is that we used to buy and fix up houses. In fact, what's even stranger is that we both love houses; we love architecture, we love everything about restoring houses, building houses, remodeling houses, and I really love decorating houses.....and yet here we are, here I am....living in a camper and camping on a boat.
But am I complaining? Nope! I currently love my life. My husband loves his life. While other people are home mowing their lawns and doing yard work on the weekends, we are camping on our boat. While other women are vacuuming rooms that they rarely use, and worrying about draperies, I am writing this blog.

We often think of how much fun we are having that we would not be having if life hadn't taken this turn....if his job hadn't ended and we weren't forced to look at the camper in the driveway with different eyes. While we are out floating on a river or lake feeling so young and alive, we wonder if everyone shouldn't be forced off their couches and into water somewhere. Let's face it, we could all use more play time and silliness.
Life is full of adventures and our lives are filled with strange twists and turns, that's for sure. I think maybe our job is to learn how to not resist the changes, but embrace them. I think if the adventuring ends, then maybe the living ends with it.
So whatever your current situation is, I encourage you to stop resisting...stop complaining...and embrace it! Squeeze the juice out of it! We only have one go around.

My name is Holly Kohler and I am 53 years old....and I love to write, and I love to swim....and I love my foofy dog....and I'm 53 years old!