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Woke up, put on coffee and ate a bag of peanuts on the east side of the van, where Pippa and I met up with Sunshine for breakfast. Sometimes she just stays like this for a minute or so. Nose up. Still. Soaking it all in. My in-house batteries (responsible for running my fridge, lights … Continue reading Day Four: Desert Attack
Desert News: The Sonoran Bird Collective is gathering this week near the Peralta Trailhead in Arizona to celebrate the desert bloom with traditional gospels. Performances begin at sunrise and go well into the evening. Everyone is invited. Admission is Free. It’s glorious here. I can’t leave yet. How can I leave half way through a … Continue reading Day Three: Free Birds
It used to take me the better part of an hour to scope out a van-camping spot, before finally settling on what felt like “the perfect one.” In the early days, I stayed mostly at provincial parks, and even if I were the only one there, I would race around in a panic, sure someone … Continue reading Letting Go of Perfect
The writer, Anais Nin wrote, “I write to live life twice.” I imagine she meant she had the pleasure of experiencing all the good stuff twice - once in real-time and again through writing and remembering. This may be quite true, but I love this quote for my own quirky and slightly ironic reasons. Writing … Continue reading A Month in a Minivan: Final Installment
I woke up this morning feeling like I had an actual hangover. Is that a thing? A phantom hangover from merely fighting the idea of a drink? Given my mental fogginess, I gave myself permission to process less today. Today, I didn’t need to understand anything in particular. I declared it “sensory day” - just … Continue reading A Month in a Minivan: Day 26
I almost stayed in a hotel tonight. All day long I toyed with the idea, like a hungry cat first toys with a death-row mouse. There is a certain adrenaline that comes with the hunt; a rush that accompanies chasing something down and eventually eating it. The seed was planted early in the day, … Continue reading A Month in a Minivan: Day 25
Anxiety is whipping around me like a strong Arizona wind, of which I now have first-hand knowledge. Instead of running away, I try to lean into it. As if it were a gentle breeze, and I a bird who could float on top of it, without being swept away into the up-current. It’s a strange … Continue reading A Month in a Minivan: Day 22
It’s “Biscuit & Gravy Sunday” here at the Wayside, and because it’s biscuit Sunday, everything else will have to wait. It was the only thing on today’s agenda for me, and I came into it fully expecting it to fill the entire morning. I’ve been looking forward to this, and being mostly an herbivore, I don’t … Continue reading A Month in a Minivan: Day 18
”Courage is Fear that has said it’s Prayers” A lovely woman I recently met in a dog park wrote those words to me after reading one of this month’s posts. You know how some words fly by us, and some “stick”? I used to say that to my doctor - that I had “sticky thoughts” … Continue reading A Month in a Minivan: Day 16
Lucky 13 🙂 Balance Restored. I woke up rested and peaceful, back at a long term visitor area but not in the circle. Just the nearest one to Quartzsite, so I could easily get on the road this morning. This morning Pip and I woke, walked, gassed up the van, poured a “double-the-caffeine” cup of … Continue reading A Month in a Minivan: Day 13