Sedon’awe
Sedona is so awesome, it inspired a series. the story of our life, as told in audio & video & words:
This is episode one, in words. (Photos and video below; more videos on YouTube.)
Sedona... has been... Awesome. We’re blushing the colors of red rock formations, and gushing over our amazing home base for quarantine. This has been our strongest move in van life. We selected stability, healing, and restorative natural beauty – incredible, endless hiking trails, many of them accessible right from our campsite.
It took some deliberation, and it took some work (and, it’s taking money). It took an entire weekend to make the drive of 16 hours. We arrived in Sedona on Sunday, March 22 with enough time to take a short hike. We parked at a trailhead new to us and hiked Wilson Canyon.
“must’ve been Covid-19” – conclusion about our illness last month.
We've now been here in Sedona for a full three weeks and counting. We feel settled in. We’ve been in quarantine for over a month. We are both able to work remotely and share the space in our van home. We’re naturally sharing the responsibility of meal prep, and taking care of the van and each other.
In a way, living van life for two years has been a masterclass, training us for this “new normal” of remote work in self-quarantine, away from everyone. In some ways, our experience may be easier than many others’. But in other ways, it must be just as difficult for us, if not more so. We’re dependent on campgrounds. We need services – we need to refill our water and dump our waste holding tanks. We need maintenance, for a house and a vehicle. And in van life – nomadic life – your place of shelter and your primary transportation are one and the same.
In this strange time, like everyone, we are managing! Life is decent, which is really good.
Nevertheless, we find the broader societal and economic implications disconcerting as things continue to unfold, with modern civilization dealing (…not dealing) with the serious existential threat of pandemic virus. First: business as usual, keep calm and carry on; then, no large gatherings; stay home, shelter in place; now, masks and mitigations when shopping for necessary items like groceries and medicine, and precautions when venturing out for recreation. A national shut down needed. The askance glances and looks askew. The mutual suspicion: healthy skepticism? “Trust, but verify” (so don’t really trust). Society seems to risk fraying at the seams or unraveling, and we’re wondering how well woven our collective fabric really is… but, for now, she seems to be holding up.
Back to Joe & ash:
We are well and healthy. We've been hiking and walking almost every day. We've been preparing all our own meals since we got here, except for one frivolous and celebratory take-out order weeks ago. We've been having boundaries with work.
Joe has been balancing his duties as a boss, leader, marketer, communicator, consultant. And partner. He is busy, but wondering what will happen with his company if the economy really falls apart. Just keep trying to stay ahead of the curve…
Ashleigh has been enjoying ”homing” at the campground in our hobbit house, sheltering in place with her yoga, work and merriment; with morning and evening walking routines, with deep gratitude for being here, in Sedona, this land, our home.
We both feel grateful to have productive work to do, for income stability and also for a small comfort: distraction from news of the virus and the state of the world…
The Transformation of Ash & Joe
In this strange time of quarantine amid pandemic virus, we’ve embarked upon "The Transformation of Ash & Joe", an envisioning we've done over some number of months. Pandemic pandemonium has somehow unlocked this embarkment for us. How so?
The quarantine, broadly, is like a blanket “low power mode” for us. We can be more easily in the flow when we prune and reprioritize our background processes, freeing us to focus on the present. What better prompt than an existential threat to get our affairs in order…
And what do we mean by “The Transformation of Ash & Joe”? The reweaving of patterns. The integration of insight. The deeper revelation of truth. And more to be explored in future posts.
And so in an orderly fashion we soldier on.
Aww, Sedon’awe... Aloha!
