We went for a walk on the beach today. Chesterman Beach in Tofino, BC. It’s been ours for the last three years. Only five more sleeps until we leave for a new adventure. Five more walks on this astonishing beach. How can I leave this place?
When we moved here three years ago from metropolitan North America, it was the quintessential adventure. Picture it. A large island off the west coast of Canada, pristine rainforest on the edge of the Pacific ocean, small village, wild beauty that snatches your breath away every time you open your eyes. Makes you think about redefining heaven. Great job: small, new, not-for-profit organization; young, energetic board of directors; ideals and possibilities and passion enough to refloat the Titanic. Hooah!
Now, fast forward three years: great business successes, significantly increased revenues, stellar community relations, a dream job, dream life come true! Right? Oh, yes indeed! Start the music! Roll the credits!
Oh, wait a minute. There was one small hitch. The dream job, from which I was planning to retire (it was seriously cool!) came to an unexpected end. The surprises life sends our way can be doozies sometimes. The mystery of business politics behind closed boardroom doors being what it is, one fine May morning I walked out the boardroom door with the profuse appreciation of the board of directors for all I’d accomplished, a lovely bonus, a stack of glowing letters of recommendation, a “You’ve worked miracles! We think we can take it from here,” and no job. After the shock wore off and reality settled in, we did some serious soul searching and took a brutally honest look at our options. Tofino, a very small, remote village of about 1,500 people, doesn’t boast many employment opportunities, let alone an executive coach to help plot the next career move. Regardless of how much we loved it here, the only answer seemed to be to move on. It was at this point McDean (my better half) and I decided it was time for something completely different. A new adventure. Which, of course, entails wrapping up the exit details of this one first. Literally. One packing box at a time.
The beauty of it was we didn’t have to do it after coming home exhausted from work and on week-ends, pushing some tight-wire deadline. We could take our time, sort through things and lighten up, have friends over for good-bye dinners and take long walks on the beach. Not a bad way to end one adventure and begin another, even if we don’t yet have a clue where we’re going.