What We Learned from Living in a Van (4 of us 
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)It has been 2 weeks since we moved out of our 3 bedroom house to live in a Luton Van, and it has been a beautiful process of growth, challenges, trust and surrender.
We arrived on a beautiful bit of land a few weeks back, after picking my son up from London, to a van jam-packed full of much of the content of our home. We put a bunch of stuff in storage, but still had what resembled a loaded moving van the evening the four of us arrived. The amount of things we accumulated the past two years was insane – we had to physically strip ourselves of everything we didn’t need, and it’s still a work in progress. We feel lighter, and are determined to live what we have dubbed ‘Maximalistically’ – getting the max out of life when we have fewer things, or just the things we need, and the things that make our life beautiful.
The first evening on the land, and the next few days, we spent unpacking and reshaping the van into our home.My Wife Bhavinie, Son Archie and Daughter Rose shared the bed, while I slept on the floor on a fold out bed. Our van is incredibly warm which we were happily surprised about – but we were bitten all over by the land bugs and mosquitoes that first night! Major initiation and welcome from the land – arriving outside of our comfort zone into the elements.
What We Learned from Living in a Van
To stay on the land we give four hours of work a day to the project (more about the project below). This varies from watering the vegetable garden, raising beds, seeding, picking caterpillars off leaves, pulling weeds, cooking the communal meal and cleaning the shared facilities. On the second day after our arrival everyone on the land put down their tools and welcomed 30 children who had come to the land to learn for the weekly Home-ed unschooling day. The highlight for me was playing capture-the-flag for hours, although both myself and Bhavinie ended up bloody and bruised in the process! We also held a beautiful Cacao ceremony for the team and the field campers which was incredibly heart opening for the community – emotions can build up in communities as we are remembering how to come into cohesion harmoniously!
It took us all a few days to land, and we felt our whole bodies run through a range of emotions as we flung ourselves into the deep end as a family. A bold leap of faith can bring up everything to the surface that we need to face – the things we need to rise above to truly embody our highest potential.
What We Learned from Living in a Van
We soon got into our routine – and, apart from setting the kitchen worktop on fire and being bitten alive by the Mozzies. it was incredible to wake up to the rainbow colours of the sunrise through our window each day, step outside first thing, and work the Earth with our hands. We have already learnt so much about living with the land, living in community and growing our own organic food!
The simple truth… It was a bit of a squeeze for the four of us in an unorganised van, so we decided to come back to London to declutter and make our home-on-wheels adequate and efficient for offgrid living. We are currently in the Feng-shui process of aligning our home to our needs, and it is massively healing.
The beautiful project we got to be a part of called Crops not Shops; the mission:
To inspire people towards a more self-sufficient lifestyle. Transform land, gardens and green spaces everywhere into thriving ecosystems of biodiversity and organic food productivity. To educate and empower people to look after our earth and preserve life to the best of our ability for 7 generations to come and to co create a global, fair, free food sharing network built on love and caring.
What We Learned from Living in a Van
It seems the world is changing rapidly, and there are more people every single day who are stepping into Service to the land, to community, to harmonious living. We are excited to share more about our journey, and the re-discovery of our life through living on-wheels.
We are now busy with back to back ceremonies and then off to Medicine Festival. This is followed by a retreat we are holding, then a retreat I am participating in, then a marathon of Cacao and Blue Lotus and Hape journeys!
We are feeling blessed to be alive and breathing and look forward to seeing how it all unfolds from here!
I was recently a guest on a podcast – How Plant Medicine Teaches Us About Life (link in comments)
You are amazing,
Luke, Bhavinie and Rose
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