#amodernnomad

[amodernnomad1]

Photo by: A Modern Nomad

Installation for Bonzer Collective birch hangers

[amodernnomad1]

Photo by: A Modern Nomad

India...

[amodernnomad1]

Life is like a bicycle. To Keep your balance you must keep moving.

I just returned from an 8 month hiatus from work and "real life". 

We drove from New York to Santa Barbara and embarked on a 6 month journey through southeast Asia, Nepal and India. The highlight though was a 21 day trek through the Everest region in Nepal.  High altitude and walking through some of the most beautiful landscapes our planet has. 

The one thing about trekking is you have plenty of time to think and daydream.  I had so many fantasies about how life was going to be when I got back to the states.  Photo projects to do, art and furniture designs to build and all done out of my truck on one big road trip.  The plan was to get a power adapter hooked up to my pickup so I could run my tools off the battery, freeing the need for a shop.  The camper shell and bed in the back were already there, so no need for renting a home.  Big Sur, Bishop, Joshua Tree, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming would serve as my inspiration and the beaches and forests would supply the wood and materials to create. 

I am not sure what happened, but the transition from traveling the world to crashing on couches back home crushed my motivation and left me feeling paralyzed to take any action to realize these ideas.  I am still not sure what did it...  I got stressed about finances and ended up applying to jobs and trying to sort that out.  You can't live off of $10 a day in the U.S. 

After a month of being home, I am finally waking up from this stupor. I found a furnished sublet to buy some time and some how this has shaken off the creative paralysis. I always thought the hardest part of creating was finding the good ideas.  I have sketch books from my travels full of brilliant concepts from paintings, to furniture to product designs and everything in between.  They just poured out.  I figured the motivation to make them would be just as easy.  Now I am finding that conceptual development was the easy and fun part. 

I used to believe in the old Einstein quote, "Life is like a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving." 

Now I am not to sure.  The balance of creating / living seems to be somewhere between moving and having roots.  A community and place can be so enriching to life.  I think the best metaphor for the ideal nomadic life is slacklining.  Even when you are standing still on the line your muscles are engaged and you are very present on that moment,  preparing for the next step.  So here we go.  Another engaged pause to re-up and prepare for the next adventure on the road...

-M

[amodernnomad1]

Photo by:  A Modern Nomad                  Something so beautiful about how much respect was shown for the dead with these elaborate grave sites. This beautiful cemetery is in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.  The erratic layout, and lack of a clean grid gives it a more natural feel.  It was really hypnotic site to walk through...

[amodernnomad1]

Home Is Wherever I'm With Me

Home is not a place or a GPS pin.  You can take Home with you...  it is something you carry within. 

When my father fled communist Romania (in 1969) he abandoned his national identity, and considered himself a "citizen of the world".  As a child he didn't teach me his language, and worked to forget it.  He was 29 when he left his home and everything he knew. I didn't think much about this until recently, as I get ready to move on to the next adventure.  I think there is something powerful and liberating to this thought of carrying home with you.  It's one I have been circling around and trying to pin down for the past few years. 

I am beginning to think the greatest gift you can give yourself is a debt free life.  One without a mortgage or credit card balance.  It's difficult to fully embrace, as this idea goes against everything we are taught. Eastern and Western societies both value the ownership of land as a fundamental right, and something that a good citizen strives to achieve.  Our protestant forefathers built fences in the wilderness, and staked claims, which they fought and died for.  Chinese families save, and save to buy apartments as investments that they don't live in, and leave empty to retain it's value as "new".  But does owning a building or plot of land, equate to having a home?  I am not sure anymore...   I am 30 now, debt free, and about to leave a stable job (again) and hit the road for an undetermined amount of time.  The best thing I am taking with me on this trip, is the knowledge that I have managed to save and structure a career where I can leave a job and not freak out about finding work when I return.  I have expanded my skill set from architecture to photography and graphic design.  I am realizing that having an easy going and approachable attitutde towards projects is more valueable then the skills sometimes.  And knowing that you depend on happy clients to have more works, keeps you professional and prompt.  I have this visual of these skillsets being like tools in my toolbelt, that will keep food on the table and roof over my head.  No matter where I go, or where I sleep, I have all I need to survive and keep the adventure going.

Balance by it's very nature is an act of motion.  Like riding a bicycle, life is easier to balance when you are moving.

-A Modern Nomad