It keeps coming up for me. It swells in waves, between my contentment with life as it is currently. I love my home, I do. I love my little yard, and I love the perfect amount of space we have for our stuff and ourselves and our cats and our dog. I love the stuff we own and how it fits so perfectly in our medium-sized house and looks so beautiful <3
And then another friend in my delicious circle informs me that her family is hitting the road, and I jerk into "how can I make this happen" mode. I have planned, I have dreamed, I have twisted and turned the whole thing around in my head and on paper. I could make a home out of any space on the road now LOL I can make the most out of an RV, but I would love to build a home atop a trailer frame, or even convert a bus. I might even be willing to go by van. Ideally, I would want to do it, powered by waste veggie oil and solar panels. I would love to boondock indefinitely, so we would need to be self-sustaining. Oh yeh, that's what gets my juices flowing!
I think we are so simple. We feel so simple, but who knows what we would really need for the long term, you know? What would we need as the seasons turn? How many days a week could exploring the outdoors feed our soul before we needed lots of time and space indoors to rejuvinate (and would we have that)?
Living on the road isn't something I can imagine loving -- it's something I have loved. For 3 years when I was a teen, my mom and my brother and I travelled the US in our minivan. Maybe that is why the itch is so insatiable... When I read the blogs of roadschoolers or walk around a friend's RV (they will be heading out May 1st), I feel the freedom, the adventure, the slow simple living. I feel the memories I shared with my family of origin, and I feel inspired to create ones with my own children.
Oh, how delicious to spend less time cleaning and more time slowly exploring. Don't get me wrong, I really love cleaning, especially now that I feel I have found the secret to zen cleaning. I love cleaning my house and my belongings. I don't feel like it is a waste, anymore. Wanting to clean less doesn't come from thinking anything is a waste (the meaning is in me, and I find meaning in lovingly caring for our beloved things) -- it just comes from the innate lack of maintaining stuff while we are maintaining adventure and our selves. If everyone has 100% of a 24/7 week, what percentage do we spend doing what? If you live on the road, can you imagine what the time and days look like? I can. I have. I can't stop thinking about it.
I live in San Diego, and I have free rent. This isn't about vacation scenery or cheap living -- it is about adventure for me, and it is about owning what I live in (I'm so tired of renting). It's about spending a day in the dry desert and then the night in a humid forest. It is about spending an entire day walking around a national park and knowing that we could stay there endlessly if we wanted, or we could move on in an hour if we choose to find something else. It's about ensuring my kids see fireflies in their lifetime, and the red plateaus of New Mexico, and the magnificent Rocky Mountains from the valleys of Colorado, and the humid pebbley shores of Florida, and as many historical and geographical sites as our interests can and want to pursue.
I want to go slow. I want to see everything. Maybe a city or so at a time. I want to visit the amazing mamas who I have met in online forums and carried in my heart (and my cell phone/email). I want to give my children what I had, and even better :))) I'm so excited about what this would mean for my kids, what it means for their lives and for their memories and for their sense of selves and life lessons. I'm excited to watch my babies fall asleep at night after a good hard day of living. I'm excited to see the road in the front window of our home-on-wheels. I'm excited to hear the kids yell, "Here!" as they peer out the window at a potential destination, somewhere we have never been and will explore together. I'm excited to design our lives, over and over, with every new journey and every new stop. I am excited about the impermanence of it all and the lasting bits of it, too. I'm excited about the photos we will take :)))) I am excited about the people we will meet and see. I'm excited about the foods and the cultures.
I am noticing a pattern in me when it comes to some big life choices. I draw them in through Law of Attraction, and my fears push them away -- so I get this weird, exhausting experience that has not put me in a home-on-wheels yet.
You want to hear the coolest thing I thought of? A Tribe Caravan. If I had a tribe (basically, a commune or intentional community on wheels), I would do it in a heartbeat. My fears revolve around being a single mom with 3 kids alone on the road. I just feel like I need at least one other adult to share the load, you know? If we break down, I need someone else to help fix the home or watch the kids. If we boondock in the wrong place and I am exhausted from a day of exploring and caring for kids (alone), I might need someone else to drive or something, you know? That is just the bare minimum of why I would *need* a tribe on wheels, but all the reasons I would *want* a tribe on wheels is a much more important and extensive list.
Can you imagine? The benefits of a tribe AND the benefits of roadliving? I gush-and-then-melt at the prospect. And then we could figure out how to live even more sustainably together, like maybe a garden on wheels? Can you say permculture on the road? If there were enough of us, we could set up our own little market/fair and sell our handmade crafts and perform hula hooping and sacred mama dance circles -- we could be like a travelling Rethinking Everything Conference, a travelling gypsy band, a travelling farmers market/craft fair, a travelling everything-our-favorites-all-in-one! The list is never-ending and full of limitless potential.
Maybe this is my calling? I am drawn to the road and drawn to a tribe. I don't know of other roadliving families doing this (and if there are, PLEASE tell me about them). True gypsies. Powered by wanderlust and other sustainable sources.
How do I make this dream real?
3 comments:
Sounds beautiful! I have the utmost faith that you will create it. And I hope you'll all come visit us in Maine some summer. We have plenty of field space to park the caravan, and a fire pit to circle around!
that gypsy wagon pic is awesome! :) mama, you DO have a tribe!!!!!!!!!!!!! i know having 10,000 places to stop in around the country is not entirely the same as having a tribe caravan driving down the road with you, but you are not alone in this world. there are lots of us more land-bound tribe sisters who will be expecting you to come for visits/tribe powwows, whatever you want to call it. as for me myself, i am honestly not keen on the life-on-wheels, to tell you the honest truth. if i do travel for a season with quinn, it'll be by sea, not road. and most of all, i crave a place, a piece of land i can grow old on and know inside and out, and care for inside and out. with less and less frequent excursions away from it via wheels. that said, i think you have a beautiful vision and love the ideas you've put down here. i truly think you are on your way there...
You and I are in the same boat. Single mom with a more than a desire to hit the road. I am still a long way from making it a reality you are an inspiration to me.
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