2008 is more than half way over - and I realized something! I fell off the face of the Earth! My world turned upside down, and I left you, my readers, hanging! Where have I found myself? Working to live, or living to work? Hmmm….

..what does phrases like, “I fell off the face of the Earth", “My world has turned upside down", “Work to Live, not Live to Work” and “Finding Yourself” really mean?

“I fell off the face of the Earth…”

Well, I suppose this is a phrase that infers the loss of communication. Well - in my case, this is obviously true. I’ll give you the long story short - the Corporate Gypsy has landed. Realizing that the constant on-the-go of my life was not a good thing for me, or in my opinion, any human being.

As I have said in prior posts, when a Corporate Gypsy, on-the-go has a whole different meaning. Never being in the same place week to week. Never having routine, never driving the same car, sleeping in the same bed, breathing the same air, seeing the same stars, hearing the same accents, eating the same foods, etc.

Sometimes I think its better to stop while you’re ahead. This way the possible regrets are limited, and the good memories will always over-shadow the dark corners you have in your past when you were about to piss yourself.

“My world has turned upside down…”

I stopped working for myself because of some bad business situations, putting me in a bad place - emotionally, physically, financially, and logically. It was a matter of life and death. Yes, I know, that’s a powerful statement, but it is oh so true. I put myself in a place where my emotional stress made my health suffer physically. Logically this didn’t make sense. Nor does it make sense to continue when all you see ahead of yourself is a life of possible loneliness.

So, what does ‘My world has turned upside down” mean? For me this is one of life’s hardest realities to swallow. It means you’ve realized that the perspective you have always gone by is skewed. It means what you know you no longer know, or have had to face the realization that the truth has finally presented itself, and it wasn’t at all what or how you may have expected. My guess is that most people find it hard to swallow the admission of success or failure.

“Work to Live, not Live to Work…”

I have always felt that this is a good mantra to live by. Honestly, I literally lived that life very well as a Corporate Gypsy. I definitly worked less and sometimes more than most (depending on the contract). Having the control to say Yes or No, is always a great concept. If I didn’t want a job, I said no. If I did want one, I took it. Work didn’t completely control my life. I did.

Except one thing was evolving under my nose, and I couldn’t smell it until the aroma was so thick, I couldn’t ignore it anymore. What kind of “Life” was I creating for myself? One that alienated me from more of society, than actually allowing to be a part of society. It wasn’t that I was necessarily living to work, but work was definitely dictating my part of society. If there is one common thread that I have seen, regardless of where I have been, is that a persons place in society is where happiness is nurtured. It can be the foundation of true enlightenment. Looking back in hindsight - disregarding this foundation has created a canyon of emptiness. This realization helped me put life and death into true perspective.

“Finding Yourself…”

So now what? Where do I go from here? How do you FIND what you are looking for, when you don’t really KNOW what you are looking for? This seems to be a fairly common thing in our culture, its what books are written about, and movies are made of - literally. I think that all people are constantly finding themselves. You often find yourself in good situations, and bad. Whether it be you are fortunate of fortune, or embarrassed by embarrassment. Life requires this epic search. It really seems to be a staple of humanity.

So where have I found myself? After throwing the towel to corporate travel, I found myself in quite a conundrum. Where do I WANT to be? I thought - of all of the places I have been, my absolute favorite has always been Montana. I am most definitely happy here. Wouldn’t trade it for the world…wait - forgot about that one….oh well, makes for good future posts…