Over a year and half
ago, Mike came up with this crazy idea to sell all of our stuff and
live in a van. We like to tell it that he caught me in a moment of
weakness after a stressful day of work. But I think the transition happened when we started decluttering our house and getting
rid of stuff. We had been hoping to downsize to a smaller house in
Thunder Bay and even had a real estate agent. But then when the van
idea came up, it just meant downsizing into a van rather than a
smaller house. Mike actually has a draft blog post about our process
of decluttering but he never ended up publishing it. There are tons
of books, documentaries and podcasts on the subject but our
favourites are Marie Kondo’s The Art and Life Changing Magic of
Tidying Up and Caitlyn Flander’s My Year of Less.
But back to the trip
itself, if you haven’t already figured it out by now, we called
this year off our vanbatical. The plan was to take a year and travel
around North America with our dogs. Looking back, I think a year
travelling in a van was a bit ambitious for me. And had I known this
(although how does anyone know until they actually start living in
the van), we might have planned things differently.
So here I am almost
6 months into a year off and 6 weeks out of the van having decided
that I am not going back into the van full time. Any sabbatical book will tell
you the most important part of taking a sabbatical is to plan what
you are going to do on a sabbatical BEFORE the time off starts. But
because I was planning on being in the van for a year, I am sort of
going to have to wing it (which sounds ridiculous to me – I am a
planner).
First order of
business – secure housing. This was a bit more challenging than I
thought. Temporary housing that will take animals. Word of mouth got
me a place in Kenora down the street from my parents starting in
January. And they were fine with me having one or both dogs. Check.
Second order of
business – what the heck am I going to do? Go back to work?
Volunteer? Continue to write a blog? People tell me that it is so
exciting to have so much freedom but just like the vanlife sounded exciting, I actually find the uncertainty and lack of structure
really hard. I like routine. I like to plan and organize my day
and I have a lot of guilt if I haven’t “done” anything that I
consider meaningful that day. These are very similar issues to those
I had when I started the van trip so I am not sure why I thought
being out of the van would make this part easier.
Third order of
business – maintain a happy marriage. The year off was supposed to
be this great opportunity to travel with my husband and share the
experience of exploring North Amercia. But my choice of leaving the
road and his choice to stay on the road means we are going to be
apart now more than we are together. So the new challenge - how do
we keep our relationship strong and support each other in our
different journeys.
Side note: I booked a flight to Las Vegas in Decemberand will
actually spend 3 more weeks in that van down in southern California.
So stay tuned for “back in the van” blog posts.
Fourth order of
business. Self development, self improvement, self discovery. Call
it what you will but I have been reading Brene Brown’s books lately and
really thinking a lot about shame, perfectionism, vulnerability,
wholehearted living, gratitude, social connection, and life. It’s
hard stuff but good stuff and I have some work ahead of me.
Fifth order of
business. Reconnect with family and friends. I really missed
spending time with people (other than my husband) who I loved and who loved me while travelling. Conversations with
strangers on the road is fun but for me, it is not enough. Now I feel like I appreciate even more time spent with people where there is a deeper connection.
So what is a vanbatical when you are not living in the van? It is a
work in progress but it is also feeling grateful for this opportunity to have the time to focus on a few orders of business.
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