Oh my — yesterday’s part one of this post wasn’t meant to worry people that we care about so much! What is was intended to do was introduce people to the idea that the good-old-Deb-and-Mark that they know so well might be making a bit of a transformation along with some serious lifestyle changes.

We’ve kept it pretty low-key this past year — me because I go into hermit mode when I write — Mark because he shrugs everything off with that “she’ll be right” brand of Aussie optimism. But both of us have had some serious health scares this year that are causing us to make a reappraisal of where we are in our lives and what we want to do for the rest of them.

There is a strong possibility that some career change may be afoot — and that means both of us!

Mark restores houses and commercial buildings for a living and also works on new construction — so what would he like to do if he lowered the volume on the construction-related work and raised the volume on something new? Hmmmmmm!!!

For myself, I am 300 pages into my next book — a combination autobiography of my life as a psychic person and well-researched discussion of several aspects of consciousness studies. That’s well and truly on track to be launched into the world by the middle of the year. But what else could I be doing career-wise?

Writing books is a joyful thing (unless you are dealing with writer’s block!), but the process is long and suspenseful as you write, launch, and then wait for royalties. In order to diversify a bit, I have begun with this blog and several recent articles online and I am slowly working my way back towards almost-full-time freelance journalism — you know, the kind where you get a paycheck?

One of the primary areas that I am interested in would combine two deep passions of mine — travel and photography. So I am testing the waters of travel journalism as well as features and commentary articles and have just launched a new website that will showcase any travel-related articles.

That new website is called A Wanderful Life and there will be more discussion of that in the days and months to come.

I mentioned the issues of two formerly urban-dwellers trying to transition to rural life and maintain several acres in yesterday’s post, but we also aren’t getting any younger in a travel sense and we no longer have the resilience of a backpacker in their 20s or 30s. Those days of schlepping vast amounts of heavy luggage overseas without thinking about it twice have flown away. So any travel that we DO do now will have to be of the lighter and more airy variety as we live out of and wear what’s in one piece of carry-on luggage each. There’s a challenge!

There will be months of brainstorming and planning ahead no matter what we do. And we are so heavily invested in property and possessions that we need to have a really big think about how to handle everything if we do go out on the road for awhile.

Nothing is drastic, nothing is rapid, all will be well. And I shall keep you apprised of decisions made and unfolding plans as they eventuate.