Has Anything Changed
I like Looking Back at My Journal Entries toward the end of the year, To note What has Changed, and What No Longer Serves Me. I typically look back over several years of Journal Entries, to get a vivd flavor of Where I Have Been. Circling in 3–5 Years, or more provides a solid flavor.
This year I am taking a close look at “Where Have I Turned a Blind Eye to People, Places & Things”
At First Glance, Some Things Appear UnChanged,
Except They Have,
I Am Living this GrowingFREE SimpleLife verses talking about it. I Am at Peace & Serenity EveryWay EveryDay. I Am FREE, With Much Time to Read, Write & Study.
My Writing, Books, Essays & Poetry
I have Written & Published Two Books. The Second Act Entrepreneur & GrowingFREE SimpleLife in Small Town Community. I am writing more, and practicing poetry.
SideHustles BackAlly Eatzz & UrbaneFarm
Our BackAlley Eatzz Street Food Business has expanded, I Doubled Down last season. We now have a Food Truck and a Smoker Grill Trailer, along with a Whole Hog Rotisserie for Events & Parties. I have fallen in love with Craft BBQ, and we smoke 60–80 Racks of BBQ BabyBack Ribs every Thursday in the summer season.
We have bottled our Signature BBQ Sauce & BBQ Rub for sale at Farmers Markets & Events we attend under the backAlley Eatzz & UrbaneFarm Brand.
The OffGrid Cabin
I LOVED the OffGrid Cabin UpNorth in MI, and spent 5-months there every winter for several years. The Stillness in Pure Nature was decadent. But our life changes, at my daughters suggestions, (a nicer way of saying, Dad, You Have to Sell the Cabin) They were right, it was a long drive, and very remote. As we age, we tend to have a propensity to fall, trip or stumble. Any myriad of things could occur, and there was low to no support there. It was Time to Sell & Move on to New Adventures
HouseMates / Co-Living
I am working on a HouseMates/Co-Living Space Development. The more I dive into this concept of communal lifestyle, the more fascinating people surface with interest. It is the word of realization which brings about a change in your affairs; for words and thoughts are a form of radio-activity.
To Test the Waters, I am a participating “HouseMate” in Ann Arbor MI, with a couple of similar aged folks. I have been here since October of 2024 and will be staying through March 2025, before heading back to Indian Lake Ohio for the Summer Season. The Experience is far beyond all expectations. The key part being “Connection & Interaction” with like minded, interesting people.
Freedom to Rome
I have come to terms with, I Am a Nomad by Heart. I Love the Freedom to Roam. That comes with a tradeoff in personal relationships, it just isn’t everyones Cup of Tea. Solo Holidays may be the norm. Life is Not a Dress Rehearsal, Find Your Place.
“Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them.” –Henry David Thoreau; naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher.
The first step to freedom is when we understand that our thoughts create our life. What you think is what manifests. You won’t have the life you want if you give your attention to thoughts of what you don’t want. And you will have the life you want if you give your attention only to thoughts of what you do want. When you understand this fully, you become very aware of your thoughts, and it puts you well on the path of awakening, because your awareness of your thoughts not only stops you from believing negative thoughts, but it means you are becoming more aware.
I Want EveryDay to Feel Like a Saturday
Here is a segment of what I wrote 8-Years Ago. It can be summed up in a single sentence; I Want EveryDay to Feel Like a Saturday. I can say with conviction, that Post Retirement in 2021, this is My Truth Now.
My Life; Eric Brown; Sunday December 24th 2017, Sedona AZ
“I am Happy with My Life! My first priority each day is to Feel Good, and to consciously find Better Feeling Thoughts. I have significant freedom in how I use my time. I have taken off on a four week Adventure West, where the skies are blue and the sun is out nearly everyday. I am looking forward to the next few days of relaxing, hiking and Letting Go / Let God. In a way I can’t believe that I am here, but I am. I can do anything I believe. My Thoughts Become Things. There are no boundaries or mistakes, only points on my life roadmap, and in those moments are the richest learning. I Seek Awareness and Consciousness in each moment.”
The mind is a collection of thoughts that constantly appear and disappear.
We’ve all accepted many false ideas and beliefs throughout our lives, and those false ideas and beliefs have kept us enslaved. We’ve been told that there’s limitation and lack in the world — that there’s not enough money, time, resources, love, or health. But the moment you see the truth, those mistruths will crumble, and your happiness will arise from the ruins.”
We think it’s normal to be plagued by negative emotions throughout your day, but life isn’t supposed to be that way.
Whenever we suffer, it’s because we’ve believed something about ourselves that isn’t true; we’ve mistaken our own identity. Could it be that all of humanity’s suffering comes down to a case of mistaken identity?
All the unhappiness, discontent and misery that we experience in our life is caused only by our ignorance or confused knowledge of who or what we really are. Therefore if we want to be free of all forms of misery and unhappiness, we must free ourself from our ignorance or confused knowledge of what we really are.”
We experience a fleeting happiness from Things. But within a very short amount of time we’re back to where we started from — a state of wanting more things in an effort to feel happy again.
The voice in your head is not you, yet you’ve probably believed it is you for most of your life. While the voice in your head sounds like you, seems to know a lot about you, and has become very familiar to you, it’s definitely not you. That voice in your head is your mind, and you are not your mind.
“Life becomes bearable only when one has come to terms with who one is, both in one’s own eyes and in the eyes of the world. We all of us must come to terms with what and who we are, and recognize that this wisdom is not going to earn us any praise, that life is not going to pin a medal on us for recognizing and enduring our own vanity or egoism or baldness or our potbelly. No, the secret is that there’s no reward and we have to endure our characters and our natures as best we can, because no amount of experience or insight is going to rectify our deficiencies, our self-regard, or our cupidity. We have to learn that our desires do not find any real echo in the world. We have to accept that the people we love do not love us, or not in the way we hope. We have to accept betrayal and disloyalty, and, hardest of all, that someone is finer than we are in character or intelligence.” ~Sándor Márai
From a Journal Entry;
“A Beautiful, Snowy Day UpNorth today, The OffGrid Cabin is toasty as the wood stove roars along,…………Made some Lintel & Potato Soup with Kale, that is oh so good!”
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That My Friends is Living the GrowingFREE Simple Life!
IT’S STILL POSSIBLE;
“It’s still possible to fully understand
you have always been the place
where the miracle has happened:
that you have been since your birth,
the bread given and the wine lifted,
the change witnessed and the change itself,
that you have secretly been, all along,
a goodness that can continue
to be a goodness to itself.
It’s still possible in the end
to realize why you are here
and why you have endured,
and why you might have suffered
so much, so that in the end,
you could witness love, miraculously
arriving from nowhere, crossing
bravely as it does, out of darkness,
from that great and spacious stillness
inside you, to the simple,
light-filled life of being said.” -David Whyte
About Eric
Eric is a Writer / Published Author / Poet / Photographer
Reiki Master / Permaculture Practitioner / Life Coach
Real Estate Developer / Apartment Operator
Modern Elder / Grey Nomad
Find Eric’s Books, Courses & Offerings here; https://linktr.ee/ericurbane
Eric is an Entrepreneur, and lives a Nomadic Lifestyle and is an OffGrid Practitioner. He is also an Instructor for Melina Emerson Small Biz Lady and an Adjunct Instructor at Drexel University. Eric is well seasoned in urban housing development.
He has built and developed over 14,000 market rate apartments on a national scale. He founded Urbane Apartments in 2000 and oversaw new business, general operations, marketing and branding at the company until retiring in 2021.
He established a proven track record of effectively repositioning existing rental properties in a way that added value for investors while enhancing the resident experience. He also established Urbane Media, a social media marketing and PR laboratory, where innovative marketing ideas are tested. Eric has been featured in the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur Magazine and Business Week Magazine.
Need Help with Your Transition?
-Message Me Here
-Text/Call 248–767–4460
-eMail EricBrown.Urbane@gmail.com
-One on One Coaching Sessions
-Help with Your Transition or Retirement Plan
-Help with Your SideHustle StartUp
Coaching; First 90-Minute Session is FREE,……https://linktr.ee/ericurbane
