There's No Place Like Home

We are home after a year of travels with the family.  What peace and joy my heart feels, as I read that sentence.  I cry tears of joy for the journey our family took this past year.  There's no way for me to fully put it into words, but the challenges and growth this year have been many for us all.  It's as if we know a secret to life...  Being loyal to ourselves and living in our truth brings freedom.  It's a peace.  I am unapologetically me.

There is no place like home.  Life is so good.  Beach days on a Tuesday, tea in the morning sun with Bren.  Rollerblading and dancing.  Cuddles and morning meditations with Kaeda.  Baking with Shea.  Kids reunited with family and friends.  All of it, my heart is so full. 

Much of life can be overthought and I appreciate how direct Lao Tzu's message is "If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading."  

Of course, if you don't change direction you may end up where you are heading.  Sounds simple enough and yet, life's decisions can feel so daunting and overcomplicate such a simple and direct message.  Before our travels, we knew our family needed repair and we were at a crossroads - continue having job stability yet unsustainable health and family or take the time with family to repair and connect.  The first would leave us with plenty of overage funds in our bank account, and the second might leave us with less in the bank but more in our souls.  I remember there being so much weighing on this decision, and funny enough, now being on the other side, it was a no brainer.  Time with family to repair and connect.  

As a firefighter, you live with your brothers and you become family.  To see the consistent divorces and custody battles,  made sense given the working conditions but was heart breaking.  In addition, we had a direct experience with our own family and we saw how not changing direction brought so much pain.  We saw where this could head. We teach our children in the choices we make.

"Maybe it's in the knowing of the unknown"  This is how my first blog post ended as we headed off on our year of travels.  What a beautiful trust in intuition and yet a comfort in being in what was once the "unknown" and feeling at peace and fulfilled.

And boy, did our trip bring repair and connection.  It also brought vitality, a shift, an open mind, much conversation with our kids, an elevated respect from Bren and I, loads of silliness.  Continued compassion, vulnerability, challenges, triumphs, confidence, mutual support, culture.  Our kids saw how we help family.  That cultures are different yet similar.  They learned that things don't always go as planned; sometimes worse, sometimes better, but always together.  They learned the biggest risk is doing nothing.  To not take themselves too seriously.  When in doubt, dance.  About investments but that the best things in life are free: cuddles on the couch with family.

By starting and ending our travels in the same place, I was able to see the growth of our family.  Starting and ending in the same location wasn't the plan but life typically works better than planned.  The first go around in Purepero, Mexico (start of our trip) Bren and Shea argued often.  So much budding heads; neither one of them understood each other.  A year later the arguments were replaced with cuddles on the couch, and laying in bed together as it rained outside.  Brendan out of the blue said to me "He is so cool."  I instantly cried.  This connection came with challenges and talks and also play and curiosity about one another.  I could see Shea's respect for Bren go through the roof.  And it turns out they have a lot in common and many things not in common.  Kaeda grew so much!  She still enjoys being taken care of like a baby (and I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy those moments either) but wow did her strength show up this year.  She knows her voice and is quite the communicator.  She's down for most things and very coordinated.  It was fun to watch her relationship with music and how her heart truly feels it.  She is "never" tired and runs until she passes out. 

As I get older, I truly realize how much the space around me adds to my life.  Rocks, cleanliness, tree's, a good morning tea in my robe.  I love to intentionally add to my home from my travels.  I like the energy it brings.  Grateful to bring home treasures.  I want others in my home to feel that energy - feel at home, peace, and in love.

Our goal is simple: Spend more time with the ones we love, doing the things that bring joy.  

My goal is not to build wealth and have my kids build wealth.  That is an added bonus.  The goal is to build a mental perspective of compassion, emotional maturity, grow in love, laugh a lot, dance and teach our children this.  I don't think money is bad.  I think it can be great.  I do think that if your goal is wealth, you may end up where you are headed. But if the goal is a mental perspective that allows for growth and peace, emotional maturity, and I can continue to grow in love and laugh a lot, I will better know how to grow with money.  My children will too.  

I hope I don’t come off as boastful but life is quite fabulous.  Semi-retirement in our 30's and traveling the world with our kids for a year, and yet most of our time is simple.  I love the rest, the mundane.  It's where the magic happens.  One of my strengths is making the simple and mundane magical.  It's being in the moment when Kaeda looses a tooth or when Shea is creating a game for us to play.  It's having joyful tears as I feel the rain on my hands and dance.  Or making an umbrella fort with the kids, just to realize it's not working and we’re soaked; the laughter that comes with it all.  I excel in the magic.  In making worlds out of sheets and lights.  It's the simple things I love.  My family, real estate and nature.  Laughter, hugs, music, dance, sand beneath my feet and  helping others.  The grass, the mud, the ocean, lakes and rivers, being barefoot.  And yet I very much enjoy the luxury.  I love the touch of good sheets and the aesthetics of a location.  The subtle but beautiful aromas.  The views from my room.  Eating delicious meals, trying new flavors.  Closing my eyes and savoring those flavors.  Drinking good wine.  Living a life where the possibilities are endless and the adventure beings within.

Looking back over the years of my relationship with Brendan, time and time again we have chosen to trust in love and in each other.  This trip together brought yet another elevation of respect.  
Risk.  Intrinsically the word can bring anxiety, unknown and fear.  Yet, most of life is risk and if we're not risking, we don't have the opportunity to grow.  

I married my 16 year old boyfriend, risky. We got married young, risky.  We didn't live with each other before we got married and then decided to take a year honeymoon traveling the world, risky.  We moved in with my parents, risky.  We lived on a sailboat, risky.  We started buying property, risky.  Brendan became a firefighter, risky.  We had kids, risky.  I founded a property management company with an unavailable husband who was overworked, risky.  We continued buying property, risky.  We custom built our family home from the ground up, risky.  We retired Brendan from the Fire Department in his 30's, risky.  Being true to yourself, risky.  

Our life has been a series of risks but the greatest risk we were teetering with was staying put.  As you know we chose the latter risk of retiring Brendan and traveling the world with the family. 

Failure is always a possibility when taking risks, but it is also a part of success. You can't fail without risk, and without risk, there is no success. It's by embracing these risks that we find ourselves where we are today.

I sit and look at a plant in my Mexico home sway in the wind, and I have a moment.  Remembering this is how it all started, except it was 4 years ago and in Huntington Beach, CA.  It was during covid; I was brought to the present moment by a plant on the coffee table while listening to the kids laughter in the backyard.  I later sold my Property Management company (keeping the mother company - Ruiz Pena Investments) to spend more time with the kids.  I enjoyed what I did so it wasn't easy.  The company was growing with more employees, bigger office, Marketing team, Sales team, and then covid hit and to my surprise after about 1 month, we had more bookings than ever and had to raise our prices, but I was being pulled in a different direction.   I listened.   I still love what I do.  I have been able to step into a direction of real estate I didn't think was possible at this age and stage of my life.  I have been able to invest in a market that has done our family well.  I prioritize what's important for our life.  I decline offers when I know it won't be for the best version of myself. 

"Maybe the journey isn't about becoming anything. Maybe it's about unbecoming everything that isn't really you, so that you can be who you were meant to be in the first place." - Paul Coelho