is this real life?

so we have been living in this strange limbo for the past few weeks. i think we have all been asking this question of ourselves; is this real life? we have been living almost completely contrarily to our lives at home. we are with a group of about 10 people 24 hours a day. we pack up all our possessions in a rubbermaid bin every morning and rarely do we stay the same place twice. we mostly rely on the generosity of the people we meet along the way. none of us are working for a salary. we have to work hard to arrive where we need to go. so what exactly is not real about it? in many ways, the relationships, our work, our fragility, the vastness of creation, and God’s provision are all more real than ever to us. so maybe, the more accurate question is, is this translatable to my life at home? how do we make life away from ride:well more real?

a cycling tour is fundamentally different than driving somewhere. when driving, the focus is on getting there. we ask, “are we there yet?” and sleep in the car and go above the speed limit so we don’t really have to be traveling very long. riding a bike is absolutely about the journey. actually, often times our destinations are not as fulfilling as the ride was, and we find ourselves still talking about it hours after it ended. we experience everything about the journey. we see the sights up close. we know width of the shoulder. we feel the quality (or lack thereof) of the pavement. we smell the produce (and/or manure) on the farms. we hear the birds chirping and the cars whizzing by. we feel the coolness of the fog. we inhale the fumes from cars and construction. we feel the steep grade of a mountain as we climb. it is almost impossible to not know exactly what you’re riding on and in and there’s something very cool about that to me. i think we live in a society where we’ve stopped paying attention. we are careless about what we eat, watch, listen to, and so on; cycling is a refreshing change. and perhaps that is one way we can make life real at home: by paying attention. to the ride.