It’s foggy and cold outside, but I’m warm in the Common Good Cafe, gazing at the ocean at Seawall in Southwest Harbor, Maine. Tomorrow I’ll return to sunny Tucson. I moved from winter ice, snow and darkness on Mount Desert Island to the  Southwestern Saguaro Desert eight years ago. No more black ice driving across Eagle Lake Road coming from a movie at Reel Pizza in Bar Harbor. Woo hoo!

A new career, new friends and a new love. How many other women in their 50s have done the same? Our hearts seem to crave change, but I was struck by a comment I heard recently: “Change is overrated.”

I haven’t changed. I’ve evolved.

Eight years ago, I quit my teaching job at Mount Desert Island High School, took off for Danskinetics/yoga dance teacher training at Kripalu in Lenox, Mass., then drove cross-country  with my most precious belongings.

Arriving in Tucson at sunset on Sept. 25 — my daughter Brook’s 25th birthday — I quietly said to myself, “No matter what happens, I did it.”

On my Facebook page, my current city is Tucson, Arizona; my hometown is Southwest Harbor, Maine. My two homes/lives continually merge. Last Saturday we celebrated Brook’s 33rd birthday here, all under one roof, coming from different lives, sharing the same history.