A Room with a View ~ of a new life

Your life is yours to live, no matter how you choose to live it. When you do not think about how you intend to live your life, it lives you. When you occupy your life, step into it consciously, you live it. ~ Gary Zukav

The View

One of the advantages of moving – no matter if it is a move down the street or a move to a new hemisphere – your view is going to change. Hopefully this will fascinate and intrigue you. As Cuenca has for me.

I have had many rooms with views. Some more exotic than common. A few so amazing that one’s breath is kidnapped by the heart and you are unable to breathe for a moment. Like most people living and working in Los Angeles I had, roughly, an hour commute each way. I had different routes, depending on my mood and the time of day and for the most part, it was all routine. Until one day, a number of years ago, I said, out loud, to my self, this is no longer the view I want in my life.

The thought was planted

Today, I am sitting at my sweet vintage rattan desk writing this post and my view is expansive. This room has a full twenty feet of windows. The sun comes up on my right and sets on my left. And in the middle of my view, sitting on a low hill is an old Spanish Church and bell tower, surrounded by red tile roofs in multiple shapes and sizes. We looked at many apartments in our search and the number one reason we turned down so many, there was no view.

In retrospect, I feel like my life throughout 2017 [a year of preparatiion] was a bit like a pinball machine game, complete with soundtrack. Pinball is a game of maneuvers. A player’s skill is judged on how well one moves the metallic balls through the ramps and onto a shot that will score points. I was maneuvering between two governments, that sometimes felt like the United Nations in the amount of paperwork required. There were a number of ‘ramps’ that lead to the documents that I needed. Then there were the ramps that turned into a comedy of bureaucracy in two languages. But, I did score – big time!

Life in another country is vastly different. You are catapulted into a third dimension of the unfamiliar and it is up to you to ingratiate yourself in your new country. Finding the perfect spot to call home is 50% of your orientation. We knew, from previous trips, the neighborhood we preferred. We knew we wanted an apartment, not a house and we wanted proximity to the river. We wanted the apartment to be spacious, but we did not want to live in a large, overcrowded building. Our neighborhood choice is quiet and very green. We are entranced by the rushing Rio Yanuncay that winds through the neighborhood. There are groves of eucalyptus trees along the expanse of green space with paths for walking the dog, running, and bicycling. The husband does a speed walk every morning and I walk the dogs – the river was made to order for us. We were not going to compromise that point.

After eight or nine apartments, you decide what you can and can not live with or without. We, especially me, could not live without a view. Unbeknown to us, our special day began with three disappointing apartments and one poorly designed penthouse. Our darling college student/real estate agent begged us to look at one more place before calling it a day. We did. And here we are! Our building is very private, with a beautiful lobby, our neighbors are primarily Ecuadorian and there are only two apartments per floor / thirteen total. And what a view – from every window. The sun rises and drapes our front rooms in an Andean Mountain glow that slowly slides along the north side bedrooms, ending with a glorious fond farewell in a small den.

I’m a long way from that epiphany on my drive home years ago. But, I made it, we are here. And every day I am infatuated with my surroundings, the people I meet, the unannounced adventures that await me, the tranquility that surrounds me. And yes, after all it took to move, my darling husband and I are still in love!

How are you feeling about your view? Perhaps there is a similar spark waiting to be set free in your life. What does the view look like through the prism of your heart?

Post Script | I have a habit of taking the negative and doing my best to turn it into a positive. With these 3 related posts about our move from California to Ecuador, I dwelled more on the positive. The negative is the sheer amount of work and personal persistence to obtain all your documents. It can be a bit of a rabbit hole. But, it is all doable and there are companies out there that will do it all for you – the documents, the dogs, the actual move. Or, you can do it yourself. It’s a personal decision. And, all I have to say is….IT IS WORTH IT.