My Adriatic Adventure: Three Months and Counting…
Bus Terminal in Zadar, Croatia
Are you there forever? Or coming back someday?
Is this permanent?
Did you buy the apartment for your retirement?
These are some of the questions I get asked when I mention that I now live in Croatia.
Great questions. Questions I might ask someone if they decided to do what I did.
So here are some answers:
Do I think this is forever?
Forever sounds so final. I’m in Croatia now. I am creating a life here. Will it be forever? It depends on what’s around the corner. Or rather, it depends on what goals I set and how I choose to implement those goals.
Living in Croatia aligns with my values, and I want to explore what that can look like. So far, it looks great!
Am I coming back someday?
Coming back. Moving forward. Both are possible.
Right now, I am in Croatia. And I am happy being present. Not so much living in the moment but in the present — and that feels good!
Did I buy the apartment for my retirement?
I don’t think so. What am I retiring from?
It’s been three months since I packed some of my things and made my way to Croatia, three months of me creating routines in a new place, and three months of exercising my mind in a way that I haven’t exercised in years.
I’ve packed a lot in those three months. In the same breath, I feel like I’ve been able to take it all in without feeling rushed. Old me often felt rushed, as if there was a hard deadline for every action I created. It was not a good way of being.
Over the last couple of years, I have worked hard to change that way of being, understand where it stemmed from, and change my thinking. It’s taken some time to get ‘here’ — to a mental space where I do not feel rushed but present.
Did I have to move to Croatia to feel this way — to be present?
Probably not. I was already doing the work before I got here. But somewhere along the way, me releasing things that no longer served me and exploring new things that brought me joy — I decided that my next chapter would be in Croatia.
Three months into this Adriatic adventure, I am grateful for so much. But mostly, I am thankful that I do not feel rushed and that I am fully present. I’m not thinking about where I need to get to; instead, I am thinking about where I am.
It’s the little things…
I have no experience constructing a dry stone wall. I don’t think I thought about ever wanting to construct a dry stone wall before moving to Croatia. But here I am, living my Adriatic adventure. Seems it involves learning about dry stone walls.