There was a time we lived off in the woods. As I lie here in the comfort and security of my bed, listening to the rain fall outside my window with the blinds drawn, I can almost imagine that we are in the middle of that forest again.
It was a good place to rest. A good place to escape the life that had been imposed upon us, and to redefine life according to our terms.
No need to dress up or look a certain way. I mean, who really cared? There was no pressure. The residents were mostly down-to-earth, unassuming people living in a rural Pacific Northwestern town. Some of them were retirees. Some lived on Social Security like us. For others, the RV park was just an in-between place. One guy had been in the process of building a house on his own land for about a year.
I even worked for the RV park for a while doing bathroom maintenance. But it wasn't really a job. Just an hour per day. Didn't really get paid either - just every four weeks of work I did would earn us a week rent-free in the park.
I was seriously considering making it work out there permanently. The first best scenario would have been if I could have entered the Washington Bar by motion. But they only did that if you come from a state that had reciprocity with Washington. Florida is pretty notorious for its non-reciprocal Bar admittance.
So it would have been back to square one with the bar situation - cramming for a test for about 3 months and then sitting in a grueling exam for about 2 days. Not to mention completing another bar application, getting a boatload of documents, doing a marathon of legwork and paying for all of the above.
Living on just social security and doing freelance articles on the side, I had to ask myself whether I really wanted to go through all that trouble in Washington just to be a lawyer again, or automatically become one just by crossing over the Florida state line. Granted, it was a country and a half away at the time. But when I got my book royalties at the end of the year, we'd have the money to make the trip.
Maybe it's the state of mind I had in Washington (and other places) that I miss the most. Much more relaxed. Come as you are. Nothing to prove. The forest doesn't judge you.
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