I've recently recognized that i had applied a backpackers approach to my life:
Pack only that which sustains you, or protects you.
Skilled backpackers pack only that which sustains them, or protects them.
This is how i live, and have lived for about the past 5 years; a work in progress LOL.
Applying a backpacker's philosophy to my life leaves me with unlimited options, as long as i can continuously separate my wants from my needs; no easy task sometimes.
As i wrote on my old website, i am a work in progress and this is just the latest iteration of me.
My life's journey has also included being a scientist, mentor, mediator, counsellor, therapist, philosopher, and scribe.
I'm always curious and compulsed to sample everything life has to offer. I did sample as much as possible once, but no longer since one way or another, i ingested some common sense.
So the short story (LOL) covering 50 years begins when i entered adulthood an activist, musician, and rebel with a chip on my shoulder.
After a few years boredom set in so i rejoined the mainstream by working for over 15 years at 2 daily newspapers. During that time, i went back to school to learn how to become what aspired to, and began morphing into what i ultimately became professionally and personally.
Back to school again, i evolved slowly into the person i am today, enjoying the life of my dreams in British Columbia, Canada.
Too long already? Well if not, there's a longer version at my old conflict management and resolution website here: [appropriate-resolutions.org]