Chasing dreams

Are you on the road?

I read a great book this week called 'The Pilgrimage' by Paul Coelho ...

This is one book that has challenged me and inspired me. It made me realize some of the things that have led me and my family to hit the road in our little home on wheels. As you can read about many families who have decided to change their lives and hit the road, there is one overwhelming common denominator, we want to live a life more fulfilled.

That isn't to say, you cannot have a fulfilled life living, and working as 'normal' people do. Often you will read about families who have lived on the road, and then came to a conclusion that it was time to leave the road and live more conventionally. For reasons all their own, they decided that it was best for them to stop the nomad lifestyle. They experienced what they needed from life on the road, and now they can return to normality with a sense of accomplishment. I applaud those who have achieved this and feel that they have found what they are looking for, and settle down to a normal paced life so that they can apply the experiences and knowledge they gained on the road.

finding a geocache

The experiences achieved is like our own pilgrimage. We 'knew' that the conventional life had changed us somewhat. The idea of the open road, living on less, and experiencing more became a rallying point for our ideals of 'freedom.' This can be deceptive too.

The ideals of freedom are just that, an ideal situation. Little do they realize that cramped spaces, inconveniences of living on the road, can and will set you back. My brand new camper was all shiny when I picked it up in July. It didn't take too long before perfection revealed its flaws. So you really have two responses when such things happens. One is to learn and adapt, and use it as part of the experience. The other is to let it get you down, frustrate you, and diffuse your dreams of an ideal perfect experience on the road.

We really dig home schooling

Learning to adapt to change is part of the process. Like in the book, the author had an intellectual ideal of his purpose of the pilgrimage. He had a purpose which was to find his sword, a symbol of mastery in his walk in life. Little did he know of the pains, the suffering, and the battles that awaited him. What was intellectual became experiential. What was an ideal, became a hindrance, yet molded him to achieve mastery in a way he never imagined. We too, who chose a life much different will face many challenges. It will question our very choices to live on the road. How we respond and answer these challenges will mold us and change us, for our own benefit if we allow it.

For my family, we have had things broken. We experienced inconveniences to normal things we thought were a necessity. We had to be creative and adjust our well thought out plans. In the end, we have grown in this short time. By no means have we mastered this life on the road, however we have grown stronger as a family. We have had experiences that will last a lifetime. We put wheels and feet to our dreams in hopes to experience more. Ultimately these experiences will teach us that our dreams are possible, tangible, and we are worthy to pursue them.

Come along for the ride...

I truly thing that is why people do what we do, to experience something extraordinary such as climb mountains. We want a life more fulfilled. We just needed to get out of our normal day to day life in order to define it. Why we go on the road is less important than what the road leads us to discover. The challenges, the experiences, and what we learn form us, change us, and teach us what is truly our own prize.

The other response is to let it agitate us, conflict us, and defeat us. There are some who have chose to leave the road due to hardships. They leave the road because the idea of freedom felt overwhelming, unattainable. That is part of the human condition, simply to allow life to get us down. To allow others or situations to define us. Little by little, we give up our dreams and 'settle.' Of course, we all have the freedom to make our own choices, to determine our own happiness and far be it from me to condemn those who 'settle' down and find contentment. I only challenge those who give up, to find another dream, another purpose, because it was what led them to the road in the first place.

A road less traveled...

So, we continue on the road a few more months before the harshness of winter sets in. We will winter at home for a time to connect with family and friends, and for the practicality of it. However, it will not keep the road from our hearts and inspire us to dream.