AM I Settled in Oak Springs, Port Richey, Florida?

Water Moccasin crossing Scenic Drive, Port Richey, Florida

I moved into house number three in Florida in early February, 2023. It is a cute cottage completely re modeled from the plumbing up to the roof and all of the interior too.

It is quieter here because the beautiful setting is away from the traffic of Highway 19, a six-lane route connecting all of the coastal towns along the Gulf to St. Petersburg and Tampa.

My neighbors here are mostly snowbirds moving back to northern climes in April or May and returning in November or December after hurricane season. Most are gone as I write this leaving fifty or so year-round residents including me.

The place fits my need for a more natural place with abundant trees and wildlife. And houses have more yard around them and less concrete.

But am I settled? I struggle with this concept especially in Florida with 39 million citizens versus Colorado or Arizona or New Mexico or Utah with more open space and less people except for the few big cities like Denver or Phoenix or Salt Lake City. Places where heavy traffic is seeing five cars on your road not like the numbing numbers here. YET, yes, yet the friends I have easily made in all the various moves and neighborhoods is rewarding and welcoming too. My neighbors from both Holiday RV Park and Oak Springs RV Park plus, my fellow like-minded progressive and liberal UU church friends. Discussing this today with a neighbor and friend, this person mentioned that maybe I am simply a wanderer by nature and should just go with it. Then I think of my age and time left on this plane of life and consider the stories of the single people living alone in both parks and dying alone in their houses and then their houses being abandoned and torn down since no one was left in their families to claim their homes. I am far from any relatives, but does this really matter? At eighty-one should it? I am healthy, fit, mostly have all my senses and cognition functions, yet I do long to be in community and settled except when I am! SIGH.

This being curious and adventurous both in occupations and in avocations has suited me. My occupations and avocations lead to making good contributions to a better world for humans and the planet which have always been what motivated me professionally.

For instance, here in Florida, I have focused on native plant pollinator gardens and on supporting underserved people through personal and collective efforts. With an oppressive state governor and a disfunctioning senate and house that rubber stamp the governor’s every trivial and repressive move, it is easy to be for human rights, banned books, free speech and rights for all people since this state government is opposed to any of these rights. Often, I think I am in the right place and then I think of the way Colorado’s state government handles improving our rights and responsibilities and I think how calming it might be to live back in such a place.