E A Summers

Once upon a time in the dark of the moon there was a little raccoon.  He lived down in a big warm chestnut tree with his mother who was also a raccoon.  – the opening line to the children’s book “Wait till the moon is full” by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Garth Williams who is most famous for illustrating the Laura Ingalls books.   

“Wait till the moon is full” was a favorite of mine as a child and I think also of my mother and grandmother who read it to me – often! I can remember being in the car with my grandmother Ruth and seeing the moon – especially if it was a barely visible curve and saying the line from the book, the mother raccoon telling the little raccoon something like, “the moon is as thin as a sliver of a raccoon’s ear. Wait, Wait till the moon is full”.  I don’t remember how the other phases were described but I never see a sliver of a moon without hearing – in my grandmother’s voice – “thin as a sliver of a raccoon’s ear”.

You see, the little raccoon wanted to “go out in the night – to know an owl, to see if the moon is a rabbit, and to find out how dark is the dark.  But his mother said, “Wait, Wait till the moon is full.” So the little raccoon waited and wondered, while the moon got bigger and bigger and bigger.  Until at last, on a very special evening, the moon was full”. 

I don’t know if my fascination with being up and sometimes outside in the night is because of the book or if I loved the book because I loved the night.   My interest is not in seeing the moon or the stars up close or even knowing the constellations although I like seeing the very familiar ones: the big and little dipper, Orion’s cross, sometimes I can pick out Casseopia.  It is more like the night is a comforting presence – never the same – sometimes starless, sometimes so full of stars that it is nearly overwhelming to think of the vastness of the universe… to lie on the ground, in this dark, dark place with no artificial light to block the sky – on a clear night and see the Milky Way and the “billions and billions” of stars and know that the ones I can see are just a few of how many there are.  Well…that kind of makes the affairs of the day on planet earth seem just a bit inconsequential!

so…- what’s out there? is there an end somewhere or somewhen? and really, why are We – Here in this part of  wherever and whenever. Mysteries for another time of existence.

Tonight, the moon is full.

I spent 7 months full time in the motorhome in 2006 travelling across the U.S. and back – visiting family and friends and seeing new things.  I was in Traverse City, MI – late June – a spot where my family vacationed when I was a child and home to my Great-Aunt Betty.   The mid-west heat and humidity made me homesick for the west, the mountains and Montana and one afternoon I looked at the Montana real estate online site and saw…  1 bedroom, 1 bath house on 8 acres on a road I knew and liked….  I had a friend look at it for me – should I fly back??  She looked, called me and said I should, that it was “me” and a special piece of property.  I was on the ‘net booking a flight when I panicked – it just did not feel right.  I regrouped, phoned her and told her I would wait until I returned in late July and look – if it was right, it would be there.

Late July I arrived back in Montana and set up in an RV park near Glacier National Park.  The house was still on the market and the price had been reduced.  I had an appointment to see it within a couple days of returning.  I was sure it would be perfect – it wasn’t…  The yard was overgrown, the front porch needed help, the interior had this low ceiling, goofy light fixtures, the garage had no power to it, the woods badly needed cleanup…on and on – all I saw was stuff that needed to be done and needed money to do it.  I had been overwhelmed by my last house and really wanted something simpler…

I went away disappointed and disheartened.  I decided to look at modest homes, with a bit of yard that could be fenced and try “city” living.  I made lists from the real estate site, drove past many homes in many neighborhoods.  I looked at some.  On my birthday I was looking at a couple of houses in a subdivision – new homes, nice houses, perfect landscaping – in my price range.  I stood in one and looked out past the neighboring houses to a nice view.  All I could think about was the goofy little house in the woods. 

I spent that birthday afternoon walking through the woods and the house and felt like I had come home.  The rightness of that place – for me – turned all of the obstacles into possibilities.  Suddenly I saw the opportunity to have something I had dreamed of.  It didn’t look exactly like my “dream” but it had the possibility to be that and maybe more.

From obstacles to possibilities – it happens with people too… people who cross our path who at first it seems like there are differences or distances of some sort that make friendship or closeness seem impossible – but some connection, some intangible want or need changes things.  

I’ve learned to catch myself when everything in my path seems like an obstacle – and REALLY look – into my heart – to see if maybe, just maybe that “obstacle” is really a possibility that I don’t want to miss.

My friend, Carolyn, who I credit for some marvelous health improvements (see bioflavanoids in previous post this morning…) made the following comment about travel after having perused my recent travels on this blog:

“For me travelling is simply a way to get from A to B. I LOVE to go places but the getting there is not that fun.” 

The classic “Journey or Destination” paradox…  It really made me think – which I LOVE by the way!  And as a side note, if you want to read about some young women who are living – and I mean LIVING life and being thoughtful, world-caring, world-changing people – visit Carolyn’s blog and then her blogging friends (links from her site) – and their friends….  These are people that give me hope – they have committed to God, marriage, family, people in need, the environment – and they have committed in LOVE – not necessairly huge “in the news” things – but simple daily acts of thoughtfulness, random acts of kindness, “doing unto others as we would have done unto us” lives…  Sharp contrast to the “me-me-me-ness” that seems to make the news. 

 

So, back to topic… Before I had the motorhome, I would have said that the same was true for me – “the getting there is not that much fun.”  Somewhere/somewhen after much business travel and a few cross country car trips my travel philosophy changed a bit.  It was so gradual and sneaky that I didn’t consciously see it happening.  The last car trip in 2000 – Montana to Maine to Nova Scotia and back – that was the first conscious thought of RVing.  I spent 7 weeks “on the road” and except for one week in a Maine cottage, I was in a different hotel every night – with a dog and cat and their respective beds, food, dishes, litter box…plus my computer and my stuff.

 

There were many times that trip when I fantasized about being in a little rv… and that’s where I started – looking at camper vans – mini-motorhomes.  It wasn’t just the in and out of motel thing, it was also that I realized that I really LOVED “road” travel – wandering around the country on the highway, listening to local radio and at night, tv – talking to people – What’s important to people here vs there?  What’s life like in this place?  It was realizing that I loved the journey.

 

Fast forward to summer, 2005.  I had off and on looked at vans, travel trailers, truck campers, motorhomes – everything!  They each have their plusses and minuses and I dithered.  But in early summer ’05 a number of things happened – I had sold a house I loved and did not find another, a relationship ended, I had a 1-2 year work committment with a long-standing client, i.e. didn’t matter where I worked from – short story, I was “footloose and fancy free” and somewhat in need of a distraction… oh, and I turned 50…

 

In true mid-life crisis fashion, I went to an RV dealer and bought the Winnebago.  As it turned out, it was perfect for me and the boys (Karl and Bob).  At the time, buying the RV was a “means to an end” – a way to look around the country and see if there was somewhere else I’d rather live – while having the comforts of home and ability to take my pets easily.  I never expected to like the “rv lifestyle”…I thought – I’ll look around, decide where I want to live and then sell this thing and get back to “real life”. 

Ha!  Turns out that I love travelling in my “300 square foot 1 bedroom/1 bath home on wheels”.  The pets adapted beautifully and now I can’t envision traveling any other way and additionally the whole rv thing has become a hobby and the travel an addiction of sorts.  I haven’t really had a hobby before – it is incredible to me that I have become so enamored of all things RV and in the process, I hardly care WHERE I go, I just enjoy the going – with the paradox of loving Montana, my little house and the beautiful forest I live in.

 

So, maybe it is more than the RV journey – the journey of life and of discovering my place in it – on wheels or on ground.  Either way, now, for me, it is the journey.