When It's Time to Move On ...

From van-life to village-life.

The very day this blog is published, I will be unpacking my belongings from Uhaul
U-Boxes (where they have been stored for the 2 months since they arrived from Florida), into my new house in Michigan. Over the course of the weekend, my life’s base-camp will shift from my improvised Ford Transit van, into a regular ranch-style house in a regular kind of village neighborhood.

I think my dog Sadie will especially appreciate the extra room to stretch her legs and roam about comfortably indoors, though I am quite sure she will also miss the 100% off-leash outdoor freedom she has enjoyed on my son’s secluded country acreage. She might even miss the cozy, joined-at-the-hip closeness she has had with me in our van-based lifestyle, as she goes everywhere that I go.

As the moving time has been approaching, I have been processing my mixed feelings about trading the relative simplicity of full-time van-life, for a return to more traditional housing. Even the process of setting up all the new logistics has rattled the peaceful simplicity I have been enjoying. While living in the van, I have not had to be connected with utility companies or other services on my own. I have been able to share these resources in communal settings such as campgrounds, gyms, libraries, and friend & family spaces. I can even be completely off-grid for a few days or more at a time, with my large under-bed power bank providing for all of my electrical needs in my cozy van-home, with simple water tanks onboard for my most basic needs.

Though van-life has not been stress-free (I have navigated uncomfortable weather events up-close with minimal protection, challenging parking situations, and frequent monitoring and managing of my various simple, limited-supply on-board systems), it has been liberating. Perhaps paradoxically, this more nomadic, scaled-down kind of lifestyle always has a beautifully grounding effect on me. With so much of the usual life-stressors and busyness minimized, a new spaciousness opens up and invites a deeper sense of a quiet inner peace and well-being, and more intimate communion with nature.

As I begin to prepare to shift my primary dwelling space back into a much larger, stationary brick ‘n mortar house, I am feeling all at once both sentimental and intentional. I have moved back and forth between ultra-simple (and often also mobile) dwelling spaces and regular houses many times, and always there is this inner heart-tug. And I wonder — one day, will I finally relinquish the relative complexities and disconnections of house-dwelling, for good? I don’t know. For now, I am grateful for the flexibility and freedom the van will continue to offer me, as it waits patiently, in my neat new concrete driveway, for my next mobile adventure.

I am grateful too, that my son and daughter-in-law’s 10-acre homestead will be just down the road a few miles, welcoming my van and me into its spacious, peaceful country magic, often. This particular chapter of mobile living has been especially precious to me, living sort of commune-style with Eric & Aja as they begin to land in their brand new homestead space, amidst major house renovations that have required them to shower and prepare all their meals outdoors for months.

Our days together have a sweet organic flow to them, with easy natural intersections with each other as we each go about our business, helping each other out, and sharing resources, when the opportunities spontaneously arise. We will all miss this natural ease of connection! This first adventurous chapter here, so synchronistically timed that we all landed here together for the start-up phase of this country homestead, will never be again. Once I am living 9 miles down the road, most of our connections will require a phone call, and some planning and commitment. What we have now is reminiscent of the free-flowing, inter-dependent village life we had in the Sunward Co-Housing community in Ann Arbor, when my kids were very young.

My van-home is not insulated yet, and even when finished will never be optimal in the harshest cold or wet seasons. I have accepted that reality. Parts of me also happily anticipate the luxuries I will have again in the 1,000-square-foot sturdy house Sadie and I will soon call home. Hot indoor showers whenever I want! A nice soak in a bathtub, by candlelight! Abundant water, spacious rooms to luxuriate in, convenient kitchen appliances, a big refrigerator, washer & dryer, a large desk for my writing and papers, and a comfy seat by a crackling woodstove-fire. I do enjoy these things :).

Everything is impermanent, and the key to happiness is to enjoy what IS, in the present moment. Today, I am savoring the bliss of a refreshingly cool, perfect sunny last full day of this chapter of van-life on this beautiful big piece of secluded land. I am bringing my full presence to this exquisite day, and to its significance — and insignificance. At the close of this day, I will receive the keys to my next home, and the shift in my lifestyle will commence in earnest. Interestingly, yesterday I acted on a choice to release a relationship from my distant past that was still active, yet no longer serving the highest good.

“Each phase - letting go of resistance, dissolving attachments, and embracing the unknown - clears the way for deeper Communion.”

from the new book, The Emptying Path, by Leo K. Johnson

I have declared some clear, conscious intentions as I navigate the transition in my living circumstances. This liberating chapter of full-time, mobile van-life has deeply informed these new intentions, from a spacious place of relative simplicity and non-attachment. I have loved and cherished this brief chapter in the van, and I know I will intentionally repeat it again in the future, in a new form. I release it now, knowing that I’m ready for the next chapter I have deliberately set the stage for. Of course I cannot know what will unfold from here, and it is that open field of possibility that inspires me as I take the next steps I have chosen. I find myself seemingly forever in the midst of active, soul-deep reorientation - re-evaluating the map frequently, and making adjustments as needed, to keep up with my evolving self-awareness, presence, and deepening life-wisdom.

Are you ready to re-evaluate your map? Would you love a supportive hand in navigating a soul-deep reorientation in your life? Even on the solitary journey of awakening our personal relationship with our deepest inner fire, we need never walk alone. I know the healing balm of genuine mentorship, and I offer this form of accompaniment to those ready to embark on the most important journey of all.