Describing my present lifestyle not as being homeless, but as being homefree is getting a much better reaction. When someone asks where you live, and almost everyone does eventually, saying that you are homeless evokes all sorts of reactions and none of them positive. Describing yourself as homeless negates pretty much any chance to put a positive light on the situation, there is just too much of a bad meme from the media about the word homeless.
However, the same smile on my face and positive attitude when answering that I’m homefree evokes a positive response almost every time. Some people get it right away, seeing an interesting way to live and wondering how they would do themselves in the same situation. Others seem bemused that anyone can ever think of not having a permanent home, but in my entire lifetime there hasn’t been a place that hasn’t been moved away from so it’s fairly easy to keep a positive attitude that there’s always a place for me. Essentially it doesn’t matter where I am, life has always been more about here and now than any future. The here and now at present is Bowen Island so I guess if really pressed to answer, the whole island is my home. And what a home it is, clean water and air every day with a night teeming of stars, if only the whole world could have it this good that would be a wonderful thing.