Yurtlandia in Das Book

I still read entries almost every day but wow I sure just never write in here. I’m working a “real person” job at a wilderness therapy company. I’m a therapist. I don’t have any clients at the moment because I’m the newest therapist and I haven’t “cultivated relationships” with educational consultants or other referral sources. I feel angry about the expectation that I market myself and our company constantly. I might just hate it because I’m really, really bad at “shmoozing”, or selling myself, or talking about how great of a therapist I am, and there are other therapists who are pretty good at that, so when I am sat at a fancy dinner table at a “marketing opportunity” and others are speaking about what we do here at our organization that sets us apart from other organizations, or their style of therapy, or etcetera, I have a hard time getting words in edgewise and it all just feels overwhelming and like a very large departure from the work that I feel passionate about doing, that is, developing relationship on an individual basis with clients that provides them with the security and attunement necessary to support them shifting harmful or painful patterns that are occurring in their lives.

I do get to camp out one night a week, and spend two days in the field leading groups, sessions, etc, and I like that part. I’m also making a living wage (and not much more!) but it does feel good to finally have a steady paycheck after being a student and scraping by for years.

Currently our rent is outside of (quite above!) our budget and we are finally doing something about that. I am so excited - we purchased a yurt kit last week. It will be all ready to go mid-February. It’s a 20-foot diameter circular tent with insulation and a clear dome topper that will let sunshine in, along with windows, a door, etc., and it means we get to move out of our current home to a place on a bit of land above a river with like-minded people who are looking for community along with privacy (as a 32 year old, I look back on my time with roommates with nostalgia, as I enjoyed the sense of community, but I don’t exactly have any desire to go back to living with seven people in a 3 bedroom house with one bathroom).

This feels exciting, and nerve-wracking, as we aren’t exactly skilled builders and we’ll be constructing the yurt ourselves (it’s a kit, so it’s about as easy of a construction project as possible, but still!) and then we are going to be laying in some flooring, a propane stove type heater, building a platform bed that we can store all of our clothing underneath, and constructing, essentially, our own living space to all the specifications that we choose.

We are going to be homeowners!!

So.

Here we go!