Off The Grid

I am figuring out how to live with more time on my hands. I have been saying goodbye to patients everyday and consequently have more and more time between appointments. I was able to meed with a friend who is organizing my files so they are more accessible to the new physician who will take care of my office. I was able to struggle through a long and onerous bill that has not been paid and send it out corrected and accurate (not my forte). I saw my therapist and talked about my daughter and her difficulties in New York, I was able to see patients in a more leisurely manner and give them extra time and attention, I could answer my phone messages promptly. This is nothing like my ordinary life, when I am whizzing from patient to patient, always pushing them out of my office to stay on schedule. Usually I have no time to organize or plan or take care of details which get pushed back to the point that I have no choice but to take care of them. I have decided to renew all my licenses while I am gone, including my malpractice insurance, so as not to get entirely 'off the grid'.

Of course, we will be 'off the grid' when we leave for Ecuador. We may or may not have our home, our dog will have a new family, our bank accounts will be empty ( I have lost a big chunk of my retirement already), perhaps we will have a post office box. We will live too far away for family or friends to visit regularly although we hope that many of our intimates will feel compelled to visit us. We will be strangers in a new world. We will have to make new friends,, speak a foreign language and adjust to new customs. I really have no clue about what our lives will be like.

Nothing will be ordered and predictable. Actually I am not sure my life is predictable anyway. Life always throws you (me) curves, but usually we don't sign up for the drama. This time we are asking for the adventure, the unknown.