the beginning

" It is the simple things in life that make living worthwhile, the sweet fundamental things such as love and duty, work and rest, and living close to nature."  Laura Ingalls Wilder

Welcome.  I've been feeling the urge to document our journey ever since I discovered that so many people were interested in what we (me and my husband) were doing. Our plan is to move  out of the big city and move to our precious island off the west coast of Canada within a couple of years to make our lives simpler, more about nature and quiet walks than the business of everyday life in the city.So many people asked about progress and wanted pictures that I realized there was something going on here.  I think we've touched on our collective need to recreate ourselves and live a dream, maybe our curiousity about if others can really achieve what we all want to do but maybe can't for practical reasons.   When we started this plan the interest was huge among our friends and colleagues.  It seems we tapped into everyone's secret dream of running off, getting away from all the craziness of traffic, jobs, stress, consumerism and making our lives about long walks on the beach, hikes in the mountains, a less is more kind of existence where there is more home time and less work time, the kind of life where soul is more important than money. 
It's no coincidence that this all began with a death in the family, there's nothing like death to shake us into reality and make us look at our lives, to question our existence and to remind us that our time on earth is limited.  We thought about what we wanted in life, how we wanted to spend the rest of our time in this world.  Thank goodness we are both into the pace of life that we envision, it would be impossible if both weren't on the same page. 
A couple of years after our loved one passed on, we took the leap and bought a simple island property, one that could be used for weekends while we planned the escape.  Turned out to be a good thing, even though it stretched us to the limit at the time ( even beyond that!) property values increased dramatically and we soon realized that we wouldn't have been able to do this if we hadn't acted when we did.  A bit of serendipity. 
So now... here we are still in the city, working and living life, running off every second weekend or so to enjoy island life and slowly renovating the cabin so it becomes a house we can live in full time.  My initial impatience has been replaced with a sense of gratitude of having the best of both worlds.  All the advantages of city life as well as the experience of peace and tranquility on our island.  This blog will be about the transition and lots of other things that are coming to the forefront of my life ie:  retirement planning, financial stuff, island/rural living and most importantly work/life balance because I think that's what interested people about our actions more than anything...that we are all questioning our values about how we are living our lives.  Are we living the life we really want to be living...noone gets out of here alive!
Welcome to my journey.