As the woman in front of us at Costco talked to Jim about her love of the memory foam pillows we were purchasing, I was fading in and out, thinking of what needed to be done when we arrived home and what to make for dinner. My fragmented mind suddenly heard the words “in my Roadtrek camper” and my attention returned to her like a laser beam.

On our way into the store, Jim and I had stopped outside to admire the gorgeous Roadtrek camper in the parking lot. Along with Tiger campers, Roadtreks are our top choice of “dream camper we can never afford without winning the lotto”. Now, in the checkout line, our exuberant pillow lady, turned out to be the owner of that amazing ride. I congratulated her on her beautiful camper and she proceeded to tell us how she sold everything several years ago and became a nomad. As we enthusiastically took in this news she said “the price of stuff  is your freedom”, and we literally were frozen in our tracks.

It’s a rarity to randomly meet others who share our outlook on life and our brief meeting in the check-out line gave us a shot of adrenal. As we were leaving the parking lot we saw Dorothy loading up her Roadtrek and stopped to more thoroughly introduce ourselves and exchange email addresses. She spoke of finishing college at the age of 54, before deciding what she wanted out of her life was to see the world and feel the freedom of the open road.

Now, at age 70, she is fit and energetic, exuding enthusiasm for life as she told us her dream of someday living in a tree-house making magic brownies and spending her days talking with friends who stopped by for said brownies. Then, she spoke the words that went to the core of our beliefs when she said “I’m not sure how it will all work out, but I know if I just put my dream out to the universe I can trust that it will come true”.

Jim and I are strongly united in our goals, spending endless hours talking around the campfire or on our daily commute to our cubicles, discussing what the next step will be in our journey down this road we’re following. That doesn’t mean that we don’t need the support and inspiration from our friends like Kim and Brian, from reading others blogs of those who chronicle their dreams, or, occasionally, a random meeting that began with a discussion about pillows. You just never know in life where inspiration will come from.

I just finished reading the book by Portland’s own Donald Miller titled “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” and was dumbstruck by how strongly his words affected me. Although the story is really about him editing his own life, he asks the question “What life story are you creating?”. One of my favorite quotes in the book exactly describes just WHY, after previously experiencing the freedom of the open road, we are so determined to create it as a permanent lifestyle. Donald writes ““And once you live a good story, you get a taste for a kind of meaning in life, and you can’t go back to being normal; you can’t go back to meaningless scenes stitched together by the forgettable thread of wasted time.”  We know what life story we want to create and are working hard on having a life worth talking about. Are you happy with your life story? And, if not, maybe now is the time to think about what you do want your story to be.