Can You Live Life without a Car

‘Absolutely not!’ as you scoff and choose whether you should click out or continue reading. That’s ok. I am used to the sentiment. As my first post to go live, you should know I live in this world reluctantly much of the time. It is very difficult for me to watch how people behave mostly never showing remorse. At age four, I remember wondering how I would survive my parents. And to this day, many moons later, I am ever so much more, ashamed and repulsed by how ‘people’ can continue on earths’ destructive path. So yes, you can live life without a car. We are headed in this direction at an accelerated pace (pun intended). I do not own a car. If you have to go anywhere, take a taxi. At least you are employing someone who makes a living this way. Years ago, we moved to Mexico in a two car caravan of all but one of my kids. Only a year or two in, I sold one car for mechanical issues after the mechanic ‘fixed the Honda’ by replacing parts only to have it sound like a truck engine. A few months later, my valador, ignored my instructions and allowed my son to allow his friend to drive the car home.

In the dark, crying and alone, I ran uphill on the dirt road after getting the call ‘there has been an accident’. I arrived to at least 12 men blocking the road in front of the turned over Honda (yes, we now had two Hondas). My crying and shaking 12 year old son told me “he crashed the car and we need to move it before anyone including the police get here”. I am not sure, but I think this was the scariest event in my life. Only a few years later did my son confess that his best friend was driving not him. Well, thank God. My son is a good man and a brave one too. All I cared about was the truth. And next time I encountered his besties’ father, I ripped him a new one. He was there that night and let my son take the fall and let me believe it. In Mexico, I learned many useful lessons…one being…Mexican men are afraid of women who stand their ground. I was known as ‘la bruja’…and told it is good to be feared, ‘you are protected’.

There are so many more snippets of life lessons south of the border. Back to the topic though, can you live life without a car? The better question…can you start looking at life with a new lens? Daily moments planning my jaunts to leave the house. No matter which country I am in, moments spent organizing banking, grocery shopping, dental visits. I lived for many years in Mexico only leaving the house once a month. I loved it. I still love it. I also have built my surroundings to provide me with peace, beauty, and solitude. Where we as ‘people’ live, is and should be, everything. How we exercise, sleep, thrive. Work is secondary. Figure it out. I work from home and I am a magnet for sales because my life is exactly as I want it. I can serve others looking for the same.