Back

Letting Go of the Bus: The True Meaning of Home | Day 275 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Oct 3, 2023· 2 minutes

Home is not about walls and stuff

I remember the first time we left the bus at Mon La Bassa. We had been parked there only a few months, overwhelmed by how right it was for us. And yet, we needed to travel and leave for the Canary Islands for some months.

It was before my mother died. Before covid. The children were still children.

How little did we know about the travel life, how newbies we were. Yet adventurous, courageous, and crazy. We had spent so much time and energy building the bus, and it had become a symbolic token of the freedom we were creating, so much so that leaving it even for an afternoon, in the beginning, seemed a risk.

Leaving for months was letting go. Leaning into freedom, even the symbol of freedom, could not stop us.

It was a long time ago.

Since then, we have left and come back many times, and the circle has worked as a mirror, reflecting the inner and outer journey.

This time, we waited a full 24 hours before we did it. I was not ready for the overwhelming reaction I thought I would have. Or for the work.

It turned out perfect.

We ARE leaving the bus; we knew it, and it was only more right when we returned. Immediately, we began to clear it of personal stuff, letting go of what was not needed and packing personal items to ship back to storage in Denmark.

It was melting hot, and there were a thousand mosquitos, so we put in a few hours and left for the beach, confident it was the right thing and grateful for the already much lighter feeling.

It was lovely to meet our friends at the sanctuary and have good hugs and warm conversations.

We will always have a home in Catalunia. But it is clear, we don’t need the bus for that. We don’t need stuff to have a home.

Home is - truly - where the heart is.

With love

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad

Thank you for reading
I would love to hear from you. Listen to your thoughts and reflections - or praise :) It is often emotional to share our lives like this, and we get very happy when we get your feedback. So feel free to share a comment below 😋 


More images on Facebook

Ten years ago, we visited Venice for the first time. Our youngest son was just a little one, my hair was still short after cancer, and I still had m…Read more
It is not all beach, UNESCO site, amazing nature, and repeat. Some days, we are just practical. These days are not to be taken lightly. They are impo…Read more
Some days on our journey are so packed that it is simply impossible to reflect on them the next morning as my 365 challenge asks for. Sometimes, I ha…Read more
Ravenna showed up on our travel itinerary because of a Donald Duck story. It is funny how things are connected. Read more
We have crossed the mountains from the coast and sunshine to the coast, crossing a landscape of snow. And we lived in Sant’Oleo for three days lookin…Read more
We are grateful to have a life from which we do not need a pause. We have created and allowed ourselves a life with freedom enough to decide how we w…Read more
Traveling from Sicily to Copenhagen between the beginning of March and late May will give us three months of spring. Being Danish, escaping six month…Read more
As anarchists, we are not much for rules. As self-directed, we don’t do rules. The structure of a rule is not flexible and can never take into accoun…Read more
Crossing the Italian boot west to east was a humbling experience. I have said it before, but it is worth repeating. Mountains really are big. Read more