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Everything Stops | Day 119 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Apr 29, 2023

When the motor stops, everything stops. Vanlife is awesome. Everything is always ready, all we need where ever we go, total peace.

Except for when the motor stops.

Or does not start.

The fact neither my husband nor I have any clue as to how even to begin to address it did stress me out quite a bit in the beginning.

Now, five years down the road of living in vehicles, I have learned my lesson. A fantastic life lesson. 

There is always a friend. It seems like no problem is ever larger than the opportunities to solve it, emerging right around us. The key is not to panic. I will admit everything stops. But as long as we do not panic, it seems to resolve itself quite easily.

This time, we called the wonderful David, whom we first met at the Worldschool Summit 2019, and who has helped us many times. It is always great to have a friend to call. Then some of the guys living at the castle came to help, and after an hour, my van could start again. After two, there was a fairly clear diagnosis.

The next day, we spent the day with David, and he helped fix the problem. Most of it was cleaned, and there was one tiny broken plastic part he fixed with duct tape.

I get to learn over and over to trust the process. Live unfolds beautifully. And that there is no need to panic. Any panic works against the unfolding of things. To be fair, it is not that bad when everything stops for a while. It is a pause—a pause to remember how blessed we are and how much love there is in this universe.

Love and light

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Cecilie Conrad

# 119 of my 2023 writing challenge - Read them all here


Thank you for reading
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Unschooling and Parent consulting, conversations, blogposts, and podcasts on family life and learning

Hi, I'm Cecilie Conrad. I'm a trained psychologist, mother of four, radical unschooler and full-time traveller. I have lived with unschooling for over a decade and help other families find their own path – whether it is about homeschooling, unschooling, or the bigger question of how you want to live as a family.

I offer guidance, conversations and talks. I call my work grandmothering – not coaching in the traditional sense, but presence, professional insight and concrete help navigating motherhood and finding your way home to your own values.

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