Sophia

[SophiaII]

I've moved a lot, and traveled quite a bit in the conventional sense. I'm constantly criticized by my family for my strange and "dangerous" adventures.

At the moment I'm at a crossroads in life, trying to determine if I am going to get married, or if I'm going to head out on the road and travel.

Right now I'm seriously dating someone. We're talking about marriage. I'm working hard, and about to start picking up some overtime, hopefully some serious overtime, and aiming to bank about 500 a month, hopefully more like 900 though.

I also have some religious obligations to sort out, no matter what, before I hit the road. My religion is the backbone to the way I plan to travel. I want to have my van, of course, I don't want to have to depend on anyone, but I want to travel congregation to congregation across the US, helping families out and maybe renting rooms and working.

I'm not sure if I fit in with a lot of people here, but I also don't think that matters. People travel for many different reasons and they travel in many ways. I've met a lot of traveling people and I love most of them.

 

[Kim Chee]

Hallelujiah, sister

 

[wizehop]

Somehow it feels like your religion is going to keep you from doing anything but getting married and settling down.

 

[SophiaII]

Somehow it feels like your religion is going to keep you from doing anything but getting married and settling down.

Sometimes I agree. I'm not engaged yet, so we'll see what happens.

 

[Deleted member 20]

At the moment I'm at a crossroads in life, trying to determine if I am going to get married, or if I'm going to head out on the road and travel.

Why cant you do both?? I am a married & a part time traveler who has an apt, wife & kids but also goes out traveling every year for a few months. My wife is a homebody & not into travelin. In a perfect world there is compromise in any relationship, if you both decide to travel together than I guess that is even better. You will figure out if you are supposed to be together for sure.

I also have some religious obligations to sort out, no matter what, before I hit the road. My religion is the backbone to the way I plan to travel.

My religion is rock solid & comes with me where ever I am.
I am Catholic and a Catholic Worker. I dont fit with anyone anywhere, so welcome. Have you ever heard of the Catholic Worker movement started by Dorothy Day a Catholic Anarchist & Peter Maurin. I discovered CW houses of hospitality while traveling around hitching & hopping trains. I would occasionally eat at soup kitchens that had showers but just didnt feel like homeless shelters; it turned out they were CW houses. Catholic Workers are not all religious & or Catholic or even Christian. Many offer hospitality to the poor & have volunteer live in workers who conduct the corporal works of mercy. Not that I am trying to recruit you but many of us struggle with the idea of vocation both on & off the road.

Traveling doesnt half to be long term & full time undertaking without finding jobs & settling down a bit. You never have to swear off the road or homelife; it all very fluid IMO. It is not an itch that has to be scratched in your youth & then abandoned when you get olde. I think many missionaries (not implying that you are a misdionary) set out to save the world in exotic places & later recognize there is honest work to be done everywhere; not saving souls but helping other peers who are poor, traveling or homeless. Then again I think while traveling one is able to bear witness to things and digest experiences that will stay with them forever. Often shapinig your outlook, direction and destinations in life.

Maybe hitting the road or not but "together" will confirm or deny the idea of marriage. Perhaps you can visit a CW house & or houses to get some inspiration. Their are personal & humble vocations of the laity that are purely spiritual in nature that never outwardly have a religious context to them. http://www.catholicworker.org/


If you ever seek the life in a lay community with others I suggest the book "called to community" by the Bruderhof press.