Once upon a time, we had a dream, a dream to make the world a better place… And now we’re turning that dream into our reality. This is the beginning of that story, the story of two people who are daring to walk the path of their highest values. Values of Love, truth, beauty, joy, abundance and freedom.

And of course, we aren’t doing it alone! Many, if not all of you reading this blog are helping us, bringing your own unique talents and skills, love and wisdom, resources and energy… helping us build our dream and your’s, too, along the way.

Our dream is to create a place to live as consciously sovereign beings. It is that simple (because we’re all already sovereign beings) and that complex (because many are choosing to live as if others can make our decisions for us). The other big thread, along with freedom (or sovereignty), is strength, on all levels, so that we live that freedom responsibly. Our place will have communal and private spaces for consciousness work, movement and fitness areas, tennis courts, a pool, regenerative gardens (organic, no-dig), etc..

We’re using the next 2-5 years to gather the material and financial resources, and to learn the practical skills like gardening, maintenance, community building, etc..

So this story is about all of us, two brave humans, and our community of courageous friends and family, colleagues and acquaintances, readers and passersby. None of us are in this alone, and in looking back at these past few months of preparation I marvel at all of the help we received, some of it asked for, some of it offered and some of it arriving as if by magic at just the right moment. Suffice to say, it has been a very blessed few months, and I often felt the Universe was helping us out, smoothing the path, even putting a few hilarious jokes along the way for everyone’s enjoyment.

Here they are… highlights of the chaos and flow that bloomed between leaving our beloved home in Groisy and arriving at our new home (for now) in Serpa, Portugal.

Packing!

We start with a series of gifts from my temp job: one wonderful colleague had just moved from Paris and gifted us with her moving boxes… and they they just kept multiplying! Every time I thought we might not have enough, more of them would appear. I think they were secretly making baby boxes at night. :)

The second awesome thing was that several of my colleagues knew a lot about vans!

As soon as the idea occurred to us to have a “mobile home” for the next few years, we said “Yes!” Psychologically, it felt great to have a place to call our own: our nomad van, a source of insta-freedom. And several colleagues at work took the time to give me a jumpstart on our van education. There was a lot to learn! It took us almost 3 months of learning and searching to find the perfect one.

In the meantime, I started packing up the house.

Our Beloved Van!

Ah, the van. Such a funny thing. After 3 months of learning all we could via friends, colleagues, videos, websites and daily searches for used vans, we had narrowed it down to a few important criteria… and then one day Benoit just started laughing. What could be so funny about used van listings?

“Elena, you have to see this. Come and look,” Benoit beckoned from the dining table.

I come to look and the first thing I noticed was that the usual price of 8-12,000 Euros was only 5,000! And only 74,000 km on a 2010 Opel Vivaro? This was an amazing deal!!

But what was so funny? What was the catch?

“Keep looking.” he says.

I looked at the photos and “Oh my goodness! It’s a hearse!”
It was being sold by a funeral home who had used it to cart around cadavers! We laughed so hard! Oh wow. This was weird. And, thinking about it, it could be perfect.

No one wanted a hearse, thus the low price. As one friend said, “Who would want to sleep where dead people had been? I would have nightmares!” Understandable, and luckily we know how to work with energies, including the previously living kind, and we knew we could clear the van of anyone and anything we didn’t want in it.

So we considered our options, discussed the technical issues with our van friends, called the owner and had a chat – or three. (Is this for real?!) The next afternoon, we made our decision and hup!, 1 hour later our little Punto was loaded with a change of clothes, a light dinner, a desk destined for our nephew, Clement, and his mom, Benoit’s middle sister had agreed to welcome us for the night at their house in Bordeaux. And just like that we drove across France to meet our new van friend!

Our van came with a few extras… the box for cadavers, of course, and a refrigeration unit (a compressor) to keep them cool. Benoit made about a thousand phone calls to sell the box… No takers. And no one wanted to buy the compressor unit, either. At the last minute, we found a friend to take the compressor, Benoit’s youngest sister took the stretcher, and the rest went to the landfill.

Later, I understood why no one wanted to buy the box. It was a big job to remove! It took 4 hours to dismantle! Luckily, brother-in-law, Pierre, offered to take time out from building his house to help. Arthur, our 3 year old nephew, and Aude, Benoit’s youngest sister lent a hand, too.

Packing, packing and more packing. And recycling. And gifting. And throwing away. And more packing. :)

And so began our adventure!

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“‘We are not made of cells and molecules, we are made of stories.’
I love this quote. It reminds us to ask ourselves: What stories are we telling ourselves? What stories are we choosing to believe?” – Dr. Zach Bush, MD