Living as a nomad is a sometimes maddening series of endings and beginnings.
One of mine is the semi-annual trek across the country from NY state to AZ, a trip I’ve made multiple times in 7 years.
My entire family lives in NY state, and after spending the summer moving back and forth boondocking in daughter’s back yards and enjoying family time, I’m ready to get back on the road!
Saying goodbye to my precious family always leaves me emotionally wrecked for a few days. The first time I left family behind to travel to Arizona, the feeling of separation was so intense I almost turned around! It’s still emotional, but now I look forward to my “other life” beginning again out West! It’s a beginning and ending, but also the best of both worlds!
Just becoming a nomad is an ending and beginning in itself.
First, we end our relationship with a stationary life, living in one place behind four walls. Our concept of having “things” changes. Most of us learn some level of minimalistic practices once we become nomads. We let go of comfort and convenience and learn how to recreate that in a new way out on the road. It’s the ending of one identity and the beginning of a new one!
Constant Physical Relocation.
The next series of endings and beginnings we experience is the constant relocation of our homes.
Do you remember as a child having to move? I moved homes once as a child, and even then I only moved within the same town and school system. As an adult I’ve moved 12 times over the course of about 40 years.
Now as a nomad, my home is constantly relocating!
Once I reach the Southwest, like most nomads I have my favorite spots. The views, the trees, the critters all become my favorites for a time, and because free public lands usually allow a stay of only 14 days, I’m often saying goodbye to my favorite spots. Each time I move, I thank mother earth for the beautiful spot she gifted me. I always feel the separation from the spot that was my home for a few weeks, but also, part of the allure of nomad life is the freedom to roam and explore new places!
In our more primitive history, numerous relocations were normal and based on environmental conditions. Now we may not have to relocate according to the local food supply, but being a nomad is definitely driven by the weather! There are circuits of nomads who like me, travel to cooler climates in the summer and warmer in the winter.
Who knows, maybe as nomads we’ve activated a dormant gene from our nomadic ancestors!
I wrote this in my book, Wild Women On The Road: “Our desire to be nomadic isn’t as eccentric as some would have us believe. Maybe our modern urge to embrace nomadic life is in reality an ancient response, an awakening of old survival mechanisms that kept our species alive.
Like our hunter-gatherer ancestors who moved on in response to diminishing resources or drastic climate change, now we’re taking to the road in response to the media’s incessant newsfeed of increasingly disturbing domestic and worldwide conflicts.”
As ancient nomads, we were innately connected to Mother Earth and knew when moving on was essential to the tribe’s survival. This makes me wonder if nomads in modern times are feeling a similar innate pressure to be mobile, in part an unconscious desire to flee from the life-negating powers that be. We’re now heading out en masse into life-affirming nomadic journeys!
Climates and Ecosystems
Nomad move constantly, and when we move, everything changes! Our view, our back yards, our neighbors, and especially, the climate.
Our physical adjustment to microclimates is one of the things I find fascinating living as a nomad. When I leave the lush green forests of NY state in the fall, the leaves are starting to change and the weather is brisk. Days later I’m in the Southwestern desert trying to find shade! In many states out West, there are forests and deserts a few hundred miles apart!
As it often happens, we get settled in a location, then end up having to unexpectedly relocate based on temps, rain, wind and storm forecasts. Weathering storms are another way a nomad becomes resilient! We always have to be willing to let go of where we are if we’re safer moving on.
Community
As nomads we make many friends on the road, and as is the culture of the nomad lifestyle, we leave those friends behind, for months or even years. In the past few years many diverse nomad communities have sprung up, and it’s totally normal for people to pop in and out of those communities. The communities themselves evolve over time as the needs of nomads within the community change.
All of these endings and beginnings require us to become very resilient. If we weren’t resilient before we hit the road, it’s a skill we must quickly acquire! One of the most important tools in our emotional toolbox, it is essential for a happy and successful nomad experience.
As nomads we cherish the deep feelings we develop around our favorite places and people, while knowing inevitable goodbyes are just around the corner. The goodbyes are poignant, but we know at some time, we’ll “see ya down the road!”
It such a sweet dimension of our nomad lives.
Of course all of life is filled with endings and beginnings, but living traditionally and then living as a nomad, it feels to me like there is more depth in the hills and valleys of emotional experiences of nomadic life.
Whether we’ve chosen the nomad lifestyle or been forced into it, along with the joyous evolution of self it brings, it’s a major life transition that brings unavoidable grief.
It’s an intense mix of the hopefulness and grief of endings, and the joy and trepidation of new beginnings!
Eventually, everywhere becomes our home, and the people we embrace even temporarily, become family!
(Some excerpts taken from Wild Women On The Road: A Women’s Guide To Nomadic Freedom In The Modern Age. Mary Ellen Telesha.)
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