The moon was rising. It was a clear night. The air so clean and crisp it felt good to breathe it in. I had been playing and singing as we sat outside enjoying the night air. Just three of us. People who had only known each other a few days, but already had such camaraderie. There is something about moonlight and music that can bring people together in special ways.
I had just finished a song when Doug said, "Excuse me for a minute Rachel, but I just wanted you to see something. If you look behind you, the moon has risen right above your van and is reflecting off the roof like silver and with the doors open like that, with the hint of blue light inside the van, it seems to me to epitomize what this life of ours is all about or at least one great aspect of it."
I turned around and wished once more that I had the talent to paint, or that my big camera was up and ready to go at that moment. Swankie Wheels too, wished she could capture that vision. The picture was incredible. My white van against the dark sky. The moon shining down on my van made it look like it was outlined in silver white.
There is a tiny blue light on my cell phone charger and it was on the floor of the van where you could not see the light itself, just the soft blue gleam it was casting up inside the van.
My beautiful Jehosheba, her whites all lit up with silver and blue. Her doors open, patiently waiting for me to come home, against one of Natures most incredible backdrops...the night sky.
The big dipper low on the horizon, the little dipper yet make an entrance. Venus, with her stately waltz around the moon. A plethora of stars glowing in the sky, incredible meteorite streaks of fire shooting through that velvet black canopy, trying so desperately to reach the earth, a soft gentle breeze to caress your face.... It simply does not get any better than this...or at least, as Swankie says, until tomorrow! :-)
Thank you Doug for seeing that beauty and drawing our attention to it.
To live this life on the road has its trials and difficulties, just as any other lifestyle does. But this life in my van has incredible beauty. Beauty I too often missed when living in a house or an apartment..
An unfortunate aspect of this life is that many of my house bound friends have stopped talking to me. I think because they do not know what to say to someone who is so far outside "The Box". If they do still speak to me it is only to warn me of the dangers in this life I am leading or to ask me what I have done that has caused God to punish me, (in their eyes) so severely.
I say there is danger everywhere and that this life has opened new doors for me and I absolutely refuse to believe that my Lord and their God are the same being. We live in a fallen world which means tough things happen. However, as always, the Lord has been using this new life to bless me in extraordinary ways. I am getting a life back. Not perhaps the one I had, but a life.
Indeed, I have come to realize over these past months in my car and now especially in my van, that I do not want to go back to that old way of living. Constantly busy. Driven to succeed at whatever I was doing. Being successful at "it" was not enough. Never quite satisfied. Absolutely determined to be striving ...well I think you get the picture.
I have a new life, perhaps it would be more accurate to say, I am getting life. Quite possibly for the first time in my life I am truly living my life.
I have my tough days, my tears, my lonely times. Those times when you are in the desert, by yourself. No one but your dog for company, wondering what on earth the good Lord has in mind for you. I call it the aloneness, which can be hard to bear, recognizing that you are living in your van, in the middle of the desert, literally hundreds of miles from any one you know.
But I have also met and parked next to some amazing and truly wonderful people in this new life. Swankie has inspired me with her travels and her consistent can do attitude. Doug is such a gentle, soft spoken man, with so much intelligence, yet well tempered with humor, it is a pleasure to talk with him. Scot and Liz who are also dealing with some of the same health issues I have which are, in some ways, much more extreme and challenging. Yet they too, still manage to find joy in their lives! All of them truly wonderful people who the Lord has brought into my path on this great journey we call life. My new life!
For those of you who are sceptical or simple cannot understand how I can live this way, I challenge you. Step outside your comfort zone. Talk to people who do not fit in your box. You just need to open your eyes and step outside your door to truly see the magnificent world we live in. Perhaps then you can understand why, despite the difficulties, I am loving this life.
Remember, the next time you meet someone who is living in their car, van, motor home, travel trailer, or even just a tent, you might actually be speaking with someone who is truly Living!
Lord bless you! :-) Rachel
