Our Livelihood
Life is filled with unexpected twists and turns. We were all expecting to have the Livelihood magazine—with its focus on local abundance, economic issues, and the exciting trades and stories being created with the HV Current—inserted in this issue of Country Wisdom News. But alas, the board and staff of the Current, including me, decided to wait a bit longer to release the new publication so that we can cross all of our t’s and dot all of our i’s. The planning and creation is going well, and we can’t wait to share it with the world.
Speaking of
livelihood, I remember when mine was focused on waking up and deciding where
I’d go that day. My wife Nicole and I traveled around the United States and
Canada for four months, and each day was a unique journey. We barely made any
plans; we would simply look at the map every day and decide which state park or
town to travel to next.
We had a
little bit of money—enough to get by—but we tried to camp every night, either
in a campground or somewhere on the side of the road in our tent. One morning
we woke up to a trooper saying, “Hey, you can’t sleep there.”
We also strove
to stay with friends, relatives or acquaintances. We’d either call a few days
in advance or call that day and say something like, “Hi Tania. We just arrived
in Los Angeles. Can we sleep over?”
It was a time
in our lives that revolved around each other and our little place on the Earth,
which changed every day. Some days we’d eat lunch in a nice town or city that
we’d been excited to see (but usually not dinner because that’s more
expensive), but we also ate a lot of potatoes, garlic and squash that we got
from an organic farmer who we helped with his harvest before we hit the road.
Nicole and I would roast that combination on the fire with a side of soup or
ramen. I think the abundance of roasted garlic kept us very healthy.
When the money
started to run out we started making our way back to New York; we got an offer
from Nicole’s brother and his wife to stay at their house in Stone Ridge—rent
free! Well, sure. And that’s what brought us to this area—a slow migration into
New England, up into the Atlantic provinces of Canada, across the whole of
Canada, over the Rockies, down the West Coast, a meandering sojourn back across
the southern warm states of the US, and then right back to the state that we
started in: New York.
It was quite a livelihood. I’d love to do it again in order
to see some of the spots that we missed—but this time with our wonderful kids.
-Chris Hewitt, Publisher
Posted by Chris Hewitt
on 3:55 PM.
Filed under
Publishers Editorial
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