Why I Wanted My Van

My husband is much more fiscally conservative and is the kind of man who would like to save and wait for retirement.  Yet I lived in the medical world for 20 years and watched countless individuals wait and wait until they finally retired to start living, only to learn that one of them had a medical crisis or terminal disease.  My own father retired and died from cancer only a few short years after his retirement.  So I decided that we weren’t gonna wait to start exploring and living life, and that we needed to find a balance between our future and our present living.

Meeting Friends Camping in a Van

This weekend while camping we started up a conversation with a couple who also had a van and learned they have been traveling across the country from their home state of Michigan. What intrigued me the most about their story was how carefree and spontaneous they were.  They essentially had no plans, no reservations, and literally were just picking destinations as they came up with them and driving.  

There was such joy in their eyes, and they seemed to just embrace the beauty of everywhere they had already been and every adventure still to come.  They were both retired so they didn’t have any chains to any particular place and were just on a mission to see everything they could.  

Coincidence or Divine Meeting

As we continued to talk with them, we learned they were familiar with our previous roots in Folsom because they knew a man who once worked with Terry.  When they told us the name of their friend, we laughed as my husband had coached soccer with this man for several years when our son was small.  What a small world and such an amazing coincidence I thought.  But then, I really don’t believe that any of this was haphazard or by chance, and rather a purposeful Divine meeting.

Living in the Waiting

Jeannie had very short hair.  The kind of hair that would make you think she had possibly been through some type of chemotherapy.  She later told us she had been diagnosed over 14 months ago with pancreatic cancer which in many cases has a 3-month life span.  In fact, a good friend of theirs had already succumbed to pancreatic cancer with a very short life span.  Jeannie had been through surgery, chemo and radiation and said she decided to start living instead of sitting and waiting for the next scan.  So they hopped in their van with their goldendoodle, Cutter and began their adventure.

Lessons We All Can Learn From

I think there is so much to learn from this amazing couple that crossed paths with us.  They both were filled with joy and gratitude for their life and 46-year marriage.  They focused on their future and living with contentment in every moment.  I don’t know if I will ever see them again, but I surely hope our paths cross again because I want to live my life with more passion, freedom, and contentment and stop letting the little stuff that doesn’t mean anything in the big scheme of life get in the way of living with intention every day.