It’s the post-holiday, pre-new year week and I can feel the excitement and anticipation in my soul for everything to come in 2021. I shared details about some of the shifts that occurred in our life this year in my last post here. I hinted that we had some major lifestyle changes on the horizon and that was no exaggeration. Everything that happened this year pointed us to examine our life situation and see the great fork in the road before us. We could either continue on our current path, selling our time working to earn money, pay bills, and buy *stuff* to fill our lives with; waiting around for the weekend or the next vacation or the rare moments that belonged to us and not to our obligations. Or we could change course completely, step out of the status quo, and explore how we could create a different reality for ourselves.
What’s to Come in 2021
Time and experiences are more precious than any amount of money or possessions. That conclusion was easy to come to. So how could we claim back more of our time and seek more experiences and more presence in our lives? By shedding the trappings of our current life situation–our stuff and our obligations–and living much more minimally. Enter the next chapter of our story: VANLIFE! Yes, you read that right — we’re becoming vanlifers for the foreseeable future. We’re selling our home and all of our stuff that we once thought was important to us, escaping the pressure of thousands of dollars in a mortgage and bills every month, and taking to the road to find more of what really feeds our souls. We’re committing to expanding beyond our comfort zone and re-learning what the meaning of life is for us. Not working and accumulating material possessions to fill the space around us, but feeling the space within us that desires to be present for the moments and miracles we otherwise miss.
This is a radical change for anyone to imagine and we came to the decision after much soul-searching, difficult conversations, unpacking our deepest fears and anxieties, and discovering our ultimate truth. We realized that life as we’ve been living it, with all the typical markers for success, left us more stressed and less fulfilled than we’d been willing to see before. We don’t want to spend our days toiling away, consuming and accumulating, sacrificing the here and now for some eventual, hopeful payoff. The more we’re attached to things we convince ourselves we ‘need’ to get by, the more we have to lose when something doesn’t go according to plan. So we’re throwing our plan out the window and starting anew with a fresh perspective, one that prioritizes moments over things.
So, where are we exactly in this plan to 180 our life and embark on a creative, nomadic lifestyle? We bought our van in July and have spent the latter half of the year researching, planning, ordering parts and supplies, and beginning the conversion of our tiny home on wheels. We’ve also spent that time sorting, selling, and downsizing our possessions. It’s been an exercise in letting go and trusting what we both feel a calling to do, not needing all the answers and no longer desiring complete control in a world where that concept is impossible anyway. We’ve already gained so much clarity and peace through this process that there’s not a doubt in our hearts whether this is the right next step for us. I’ll be sharing more of the van build process, as well as the things that led us to this decision, so sign up for my emails below so you don’t miss any future posts!
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