I love podcasts, in fact I would say I'm a podcast addict. This is how I justify my hours logged driving between where I LIVE and where I CONNECT. On a recent trip, I was thinking about how all of this driving was really feeling like a worn out life pattern, then stumbled across this podcast called "Remote Possibilities" - which is about how to set up a remote business, anywhere is the world! Why, I thought, do I feel that I need to drive 400 miles every other week to find connection? With that, here is my first blog post, it's really about what Pema Chodron refers to as "staying".. settling down to find out what's inside... to explore the remote possibilities.
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As a relatively new resident of Tahoe City, I am relentlessly curious about the people I meet here, and how they found their way to calling Lake Tahoe their home.
I have been consistently surprised to meet such a variety of people - creative professionals, health practitioners, biologists, tech entrepreneurs, “joy surfers” and more.. I have to admit that this richly diverse and spiritually minded community feels like a very agreeable alternative to the somewhat less diverse (and more intense!!) community of people I’ve aligned with in the SF Bay Area. Not to sound judgmental, but I am finding the variety here to be, well, much more aligned with what matters to me. The centerpiece of our lives seems to be common - the heart-stopping beautiful surroundings, limitless ways to enjoy the outdoors, the simple pleasures.
Over the course of the past 15 months, my husband and I have been vacillating about whether Tahoe is where we want to call our permanent home. We have been subject to the same range of emotions that multigenerational locals experience with unpredictable seasonal weather patterns, over-crowding, proper dog management, and more. We have volunteered for local athletic events, high school sports team coaching, ski mountain hosting, and look forward to more of the same in the coming summer. But still.. we wonder, "is this home?"
I continue to drive back and forth to the Bay Area for meeting with my coaching clients, keeping my professional and personal relationships from becoming stale, and burning way too much fossil fuel. This is way out of alignment with my environmental politics. So, I’ve decided to try and pivot to my new mantra for living.. really LIVING.. up here: Remote Possibilities.
It IS possible to be a fully deployed leadership and life transformations coach in Tahoe, I just need to practice what I preach.. to truly see the possibilities, to leverage technology (remote connection!), to meet and get to know my neighbors, to refine my coaching practice so that it meets the needs of my local business and personal connections, and so on. Bottom line: It’s easy to be on the run, halfway here or halfway there. It’s harder to be still, to make a stand.. until you do. In stillness, the truth comes at you, so you have to be ready! For me, my new possibility is: This (Tahoe) is where I LIVE, where I WORK and where I PLAY. Trips to the Bay Area are lovely, but also a way of avoiding the possibility to grow in so many significant dimensions.
Once you take a stand, i.e. choosing to stay, the possibilities - for deeper social connection, for making an impact, for self discovery - are literally infinite. Once I chose my mantra of “remote possibilities” a few weeks back, I’ve noticed how silly it feels to live in two places at once, and more importantly how much richer life is when you can "get off the road.” Here’s to your remote possibilities! ;-) Sally
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