Four months of showering in an RV.
Four months of emptying the waste tank every few days.
Four months of waking up in campgrounds or Walmart parking lots or curbside to a friend’s house.
Four months.
And then, on a warm weekend in June, the adventure ended. We unpacked and vacuumed and polished and swept and scrubbed. My dad power-washed the outside of the bus, and we unhooked our van, and we returned the bus to its owner.
What do you do after four months of a life-changing adventure?
You can find the rest of today’s post over at Joyce Glass’s blog, “Grow, Pray, Serve.”
* * * * *
If this is your first time here, check out the posts I wrote about our recent four-month road trip. Or my E-book (Building a Life Out of Words) about how I lost a lot of stuff, chased my dream to become a full-time writer, and gained a lot of stuff way more important than the stuff I lost.
You can also follow along on Twitter or over at my Facebook writer’s page.
Shawn, I can identify with the feelings you are expressing,because I have had and continue to have them periodically in relation to going to Haiti and “returning to normal life”. Before going to Haiti,the only fear I had was that I would come home,unchanged by the experience. Maybe that was too much expectation for one little trip to Haiti, but I tend to have high expectations for myself! I think what I am figuring out is this: it is only in the “returning to normal life” that I am able to see areas where I may have changed or am in the process of changing. It is only in the course of a journey,that we can look back over our shoulders and see where we have been. If we stay put,we will never have that perspective. It seems obvious and cliche,and I don`t have four months worth of experiences to mull over,but I just wanted you to know you are not alone in how you feel.
Thanks, Marlene. It’s always interesting, coming home. You’ve helped me to see it a little differently. Thanks.