An interesting question was posed to me yesterday while talking with a dear friend about our move. “Aren’t you afraid that moving to the island will find that you take it for granted and no longer appreciate it?” It’s true, visiting our island paradise once a year certainly does make us appreciate its beauty and everything it offers. However, upon reading that question in our chat my immediate gut reaction was the other side of the coin. I imagine some of you will identify with this. My first thought was, “God no!” It will be so nice to take it slow and easy! For the first time since we discovered the island in 2010 we won’t have to rush through in 8 or 9 days a list of “to-do” items as long as our arm. Or worse, because we have to rush back to a ship. We’ll be able to leisurely savor every bite of every meal, enjoy every last minute of every sunset, try every French rosé, try out that “new place that just opened” in Simpson Bay or Grand Case, make many new friends and enjoy our time with old friends, all because we will no longer be on a gogogo agenda. Going through the medical issues I have over the last couple of years has made me aware of how incredibly precious every minute of life is. I take nothing for granted and am 100% cognizant of how truly blessed we are to be offered this opportunity. I intend to enjoy every minute given me.
St. Maarten Move 
I love that you and your spouse followed your dream and are making it a reality . I know that downsizing is tough. I am a realtor and help people thru it all the time. Everything you said is so true, most of us hang on to stuff and really it is all about the memories not the item. Best wishes on this exciting move. I look forward to reading your journal .
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Thank you for the encouraging words, Patti. I actually hit a wall about a week into the decluttering. Mostly just the enormous amount of pictures I forgot I had (literally thousands). Digitizing some, tossing others. The memories were overwhelming. I listened to my body, who one morning a few days ago told me it’d had enough, and just did absolutely nothing all day. This is most certainly a learning curve as we’ve never literally decluttering down to the absolute basics before and have also never attempted a move of this magnitude in about 80 days from decision to move to moving in. I probably won’t do that again, lol. Again, I so appreciate the kind words ❤️
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