What’s the message?

Figuring out what I’m supposed to be learning

Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash

I’m wondering what the universe is showing me. There is a pattern emerging.

Since 2013, my husband and I have been travelling, house sitting and doing work for accommodation exchanges and up until 2023, it all went fine.

Then since early 2023, we have been having problems.

In February of that year we arranged an ongoing gig in Scotland where we we were going to help out with grounds maintenance and the chickens, and look after the owner’s place for her while she was away, in return for a two-bed static home with all mod-cons. We drove for many hours and arrived to find a tiny caravan that we couldn't both stand up in at the same time. It had no heating, no wifi, and no bathroom and she told us we could shower on her deck using the outdoor tap. In February (well anytime of year would’ve been unacceptable really!). She expected us to do an insane amount of work on the steep rough land, which, among many other things, involved felling trees belonging to her neighbours. We left straight away.

In September of that year, we flew to Canada to do a 3 month house sit looking after chickens and plants. On arrival we discovered that we were also expected to do all kinds of things managing their holiday let business. If we hadn't just spent a lot of money on flights and flown half way round the world to do this house sit, we would have left. But we stayed and then were bombarded by hysterical emails while the owners were on their travels. I wrote about that here.

In early 2024, we arranged another work for accommodation exchange in Yorkshire, UK, after visiting the place and seeing it. It was lovely. Then my mother-in-law died suddenly and we had to delay our arrival. When we did arrive, just three days after the funeral, we discovered that all the nice furniture had been taken out and replaced with tat. Someone else had been staying there since we’d visited and it hadn’t been cleaned. There was cat shit on the floor, everything we touched was sticky, and there were dirty old clothes lying around everywhere. We left. Our friends with a house in Greece let us go and stay there while we sorted out what next.

Then last weekend we went to start a job as caretakers of a house and small estate near Inverness and discovered that the apartment we got in return for our work was barely functional. No running water in the kitchen, no heating, the log burner was broken, as was the washing machine, and there was no wifi. The owners also were now expecting us to do a lot more work than had been agreed and had no intentions of fixing any of the broken things. We left.

See what I mean. There’s a pattern.

We have been in a holiday cottage since last Wednesday but can’t afford to keep living in them, especially as now they keep going up in price each week as we head into holiday season, and we had no idea what we were going to do. We can no longer do house sitting as my husband has developed an allergy. We thought it was to the rabbit hay at a house sit we did in January but it turns out it’s pet fur and he can no longer be around cats and dogs.

The universe provided a guardian angel in the form of Anita, who is on one of my Year of Mindful Writing courses that started in January, who has arranged for us to stay in her cousin’s family holiday home for a month, at a much more affordable rate than you can find usually. My gratitude is immense.

So we have a bit of breathing space to figure out what next. But before we can do that, we have to figure out what the universe is showing us. It appears to be that we should stop doing this kind of work. But it’s the only way we can afford to live in the UK. So maybe it’s showing us that we have to leave?

But to go where?

I had expected to be getting my Irish passport in June, which will enable us to live in the EU again. But I found out last week that it has been delayed by 6-9 months.

So maybe we’re not supposed to live in Europe either?

I just can’t figure it out at the moment (your ideas are welcome!). So I’m just taking each day as it comes. Today I am in Northumberland. A region I’ve not visited much and not at all for about 20 years. It’s a very beautiful place. The sun is shining. I have shelter, food, and love. Today I am safe, I am warm, I am blessed.

With love,

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