Where Your Place Is

 I am a kind of nomad.  I can't just live in the same place for decades doing the same job and then retire in a place here in Florida.  That is not me.  But some people will spend a lifetime in search of a place only to find that place isn't perfect.  I might be a kind of modern day nomad, but let me just say I have belonged every place I have ever been doing what I was supposed to do.  If success is to retire with a huge back account then that has not been my life.  Sure, everyone has struggles, but if we had waited until we could afford to do things we have done we wouldn't have done them.  

And too, one can't put a square peg in a round hole.  I could say my life is different because that is some kind of design that it is.  As Colonel Potter in M*A*S*H so famously says, "If you ain't where you're at, you're no place."  And he's one hundred percent correct.  If you try to make a place you don't want to be then the place you make is no place.  Everyone has a reason to be where they are.  And if you're constantly looking at the next place you want to be, when you finally find that place you won't be happy there until you discover that where you are is where you are supposed to be.  

Since selling our house, my wife and I have been living a kind of nomadic lifestyle.  We sold our home in 2013 and then lived in two apartments.  After moving to the second place in the same complex we swore we'd never move again.  But then we decided to move to NY in 2019.  We did.  Then our son bought a house here in Florida and we moved in with him.  Then this condo opened for rent for about seven months.  And we are deciding where we go next.  But if I kept saying I don't have a place, I'd be wrong.

A place is where you are and if you ain't where you are, you are no place.  Some people might say they don't belong where they are.  But those people are wrong.  You belonged in every place you have ever been.  And if you don't think so, maybe you need to evaluate your reason for living.  If we live with regrets we can go all the way back and regret being born.  I have said regrets are for losers.  I regret nothing.  But I couldn't always say this.  My life was full of regrets.  In fact, depression nearly killed me more than once.  I had to learn to accept my life as it is and as it has been lived.  Once I was able to say that I belonged every place I have ever been then I was able to live without regrets.  

I could be homeless and not regret that I was homeless.  I could be wealthy, and again not regret how I earned that wealth.  It matters not because my place is where I am.  My place has always been where I was.  And our next place will be right where I belong.  I have belonged every place I have ever been.  I compare myself to no one.  I am not jealous or envious of anyone.  But I am quite happy where I am.  Why?  I belong where I am.  I'm not looking back with regret and I'm not anxious about the future.  Why?  My place in life is always where I am.  And THAT is how it has always been.  

We can't change the past.  We live with ourselves because we can't undo that which is done.  And the future has nothing but anxieties.  What we have is right now.  Sure I have pipes in a wish list.  Maybe I'll add a pipe or two in my collection some time soon, but in choosing a pipe for today, I had many to choose from.  But we are happiest when we realize what we have is enough and we will always have enough.  I have been low on tobacco, but again, I've always had enough.  Happiness is knowing that today you have enough.  You might have more tomorrow, but that is tomorrow. 

I'm smoking my Alpha pipe this morning my famiky gave me as Christmas gift long ago.  The tobacco is my Tropical Export.  I'm sitting by the pool this morning on the patio at my son's home .  I feel as though i will always have a place, but I've learned that wherever I am is my proper place.   Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave