So what if you’re like us – loving on a piece of land from afar? You’ve got your dream/retirement/next step plot of land ready to whisk you away to your future…when you can get there. There’s a tension between being wholly present in your current life and staying connected to and working on your next phase plans. I think you can do both, with joy.
To be honest, every time we leave Idylwild I feel homesick. I know I am leaving part of myself on this magical property that called us on our first visit. And there’s a longing in my body in between visits. But, we can’t be there all of the time. We have kids in high school and work commitments that keep us from moving there now. Here’s how I’ve been approaching this “both/and” situation.
I encourage us to dream. We write those dreams down in an Idylwild journal. We dream about next year, and twenty years from now. These dreams keep coming and keep evolving. Like my dream to build a retreat and wellness center. It started with one main room and expanded – to add on separate rooms for a hot tub, cold plunge, sauna and salt cave – based on the experiences we’ve had and what Lawrenceburg doesn’t already have. Then I felt into the retreats I might hold or host at Idylwild. That’s evolved so much that it should probably be its own post. B ut women showing up in monthly circles at The Treehouse have encouraged me to consider camping retreats. I didn’t think that I would be able to hold a retreat at Idylwild for years, but now I think it might even be possible – this fall! (Stay tuned…)
We work on big infrastructure projects that just take time. When we purchased Idylwild, we had two RVs, one mobile home and a lot of other things that were abandoned long ago on the property that needed to be cleaned up. That was what we did first. Then we ordered a tiny home after staying at so many (wonderful!) Airbnb’s and hotels during rainstorms but wanting to sleep on our own land. And then we built a road up the middle of the property to where we would site the tiny home, but also the home that we will build one day. All of these projects cost money, are needed for Idylwild’s future, and take time. Doing a couple of these a year keeps us moving towards our dreams without being overwhelmed.
We plant or clear by hand each time we visit. Once the road was built, it was easy to see where there were areas suitable for perennial planting. Last fall, I planted haskaps, gooseberries, and currants – perennial fruit shrubs – in one of the clearings. This spring I planted two varieties of lilac (‘Albert F Holden’ and ‘Nadezdha’) at the entrance of the path along the creek. They are small and will take time to grow, but in a few years will be a wonderous treat in the spring. We also do little maintenance things, like pick up sticks out of the creek and off of the paths, and pull saplings out of the new road. These little things add up to less work later and a better experience next time.
In the meantime, we never stop dreaming. About what is in front of us right now as well as about the possibilities in the future. And we visit and love up on Idylwild as much as we can.
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