Home.

(hōm) n. – A place where one lives; a residence. / An environment offering security and happiness.

Home is where you lay your head at night. Home is where you feel safe and secure in all that is around you.

Describe home.

Is it where you hang your hat at night? Is it where you keep your belongings? Is it a physical place? Or a feeling?? I’ve been struggling for awhile trying to figure out what home is. At this very moment, I haven’t a fucking clue where or what “home” is. I just know where I am is not home. Where I live, apartment and city, is not my home. I don’t feel this is the place for me. I don’t know if I ever have.

“Home is people. Not a place. If you go back there after the people are gone, then all you can see is what is not there any more.”
― Robin Hobb, Fool’s Fate

I definitely think that home IS where you place your head at night and where you surround yourself with comforts but I think that place is constantly changing, as we humans are. It is that tranquility and peace that envelopes you and makes you feel safe. THAT is home.

It doesn’t matter if your home happens to be a manse or a lean-to. If that’s your ideal, awesome. I’m happy in a barn or a tent. My favourite place to stay on the road is my car. I can feel at ease in your giant oversized, second mortgaged ideal but I prefer the cozy feeling of a cabin or a tiny a-frame tree fort.

“Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.”
― Gary Snyder

So what do you do when you don’t feel like you have a home?? I have an apartment. It’s a great place: amazing views, stunning floors, spacious. It’s where I keep my belongings (not many might I add) but it doesn’t feel like my home. My home is the road. It’s as though I am returning by instinct to my territory after leaving it… my home… the road. I NEED to be there.

Each day I wake on the road, open to new possibilities and each night, I lay my head on a pillow (mine from my apartment) and I am once again home. Home, for me, is internal. When I am at peace with myself, I am home. I am most at peace on the road.

“Where thou art, that is home.”
― Emily Dickinson

-Devon

Mother Nature.

Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty to come clean.

I can’t speak for everybody but for me there is nothing more therapeutic than getting into the garden and working with the plants. You could be having the shittiest of days, carrying all kinds of stress and the minute you put your hands into that soil, all is forgiven/forgotten. The soul connects with its roots and for a few hours and nothing else matters.

Mother Nature is such a powerful friend. She is there whenever we need her. We stroll about enjoying all that she has to offer, take pictures when she strikes a pose, camp in all her glory for days/weeks on end. Yet we as humans destroy her and she holds no grudges…

Have you sat with her lately and given thanks?

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” — Albert Einstein

– Devon

Control.

When giving up is all you can do.

“A good traveler has no fixed plan and is not intent of arriving.” – Lao Tzu

Giving up control was/is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. It’s simple for most people but for me it’s a question of “hands up” or “hold on for dear life” on the rollercoaster. During this trip there were many instances where I had to let go of the control and trust the process (something that I don’t do easily). They seem to go hand in hand and I’m not good at either.

We spent 9+ months planning out this road trip; we knew where we were going, what we were doing etc. The universe had other plans for us. A cold front moved into the direct location we had planned on going. We were thrown into not knowing what we were going to do before we even left. I was sick as a dog with vertigo for months before the trip and was not sure if I could actually tough it out and make a go of it. The first few days I feel I fought the control tooth and nail, not willing to give it up. I don’t even remember where, but we finally gave in.

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber.

Actually now that I think about it, it was the morning we left Jackpot, Nevada. I had a horrible dream the night before and normally I would take control and drive to the next destination but something inside of me told me not to. Something told me to calm down and trust and let Lisa drive. It was a simple little act but HUGE in my life. I finally was giving up the control. That was the start of finally giving in and just letting things happen how they were supposed to. We finally started trusting the road! Knowing that the road would take us exactly where we needed to go and teach us everything we needed to learn on this trip.

We finally threw our hands up on the “rollercoaster” and this was probably one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes” – Marcel Provst

– Devon

Jessie.

Jessie from Beclabito.

Jade & I were on our first road trip together back in 2009, we packed up the car and took off for 2 weeks. One morning we woke up in Shiprock, New Mexico on our way to White Sands National Monument, following the map, it led us to a highway that didn’t exist, so we pulled over in a church parking lot and got out the old map to re-check our route. While we were looking at the map an older lady walked over from the other side of the parking lot and asked if we were lost, we said not really just trying to figure out where we were going. She said we wanted to get to Alamogordo and she pointed us in the right direction. She then told us her name, Jessie, and she needed a ride back home from church. Both Jade and I have NEVER picked up a hitch hiker but we looked at each other and said what the hell. This woman was easily 90 yrs old. We moved the cooler and a few things around in the back seat and she hopped in. We happened to be going the same way as she was. We got to talking about where she was from and her family, we passed the tiny village she was born and raised in, it was all boarded up and deserted. She told us about her son who lived in Tuba City and we should stop in and see him, they would love the company. She recounted many stories about Shiprock, the actual rock itself. Some truly fascinating tales about the surrounding area, and her grandmother’s ranch near the base of the rock.

What we thought was going to be a quick 10 minute drive home turned into a 2 hour drive down this long, winding dirt road. We ended up in Beclabito, almost on the Arizona border, and totally out of the area we wanted to be in. Where, seemingly, out of no where popped up a gas station. Jessie tells us we can drop her off, she can walk from there. She thanks us kindly for the ride, blesses us and our trip with a little Navajo saying and leaves the car. By then I am trying to get my camera out because Jade and I had been videoing EVERYTHING on our trip. I get the camera working, point the camera outside of the car where Jessie is slowly walking to the door, and we clearly see her. But when we played the video back in the car she was no where to be found on the camera.

Was Jessie really there in the car?? We ended up being on the correct road, in the right direction because of Jessie, we learned greatly from this Navajo lady but WTF happened??

Jade says I am crazy, she was really there and has no explanation for the no show on my camera. I, on the other hand, tend to think that Jessie didn’t happen. Was it a Navajo spirit realizing we were lost in the land and needing direction out? OR am I to believe that we picked up some random hitch hiker?…

– Devon