A Pilgrimage for Nomads

Well, we’re doing it. We are going to walk the 40 miles from Thursday to Sunday.

Me, Abi, Hannah and TJ and oh so many more. Do you see the mischief we get up to when Andrew is away.

We have come to Alabama to meet up with our friends, Al and Tina Nord, and see this amazing land they have been telling us about.

Turns out our timing is perfect once again. We are here just in time for their pilgrimage. We figure – we love pilgrimages! We love Nomads! Hey, we are Nomads! And a pilgrimage of walking with amazing, nomadic, people to raise money for a homeland for the wanderers. WE’RE IN! We are walking for “Nomads Land”. Oh Yeah! It is a place of rest for the Global Nomads, the wanderers, our friends. Check out the website.

Our friends have been dreaming about a place like this for years. It is 40 acres of paradise land with a barn and a mobile home. There are lots of buses here already but lots of room for more and places for small dwellings to be built. There are limited planning laws for building here and the neighbours love them. I say they are off to a great start.

As we have been traveling around we have noticed a need for such places around the world. Nomads are misunderstood and feared by so many.

I am sure there are some nomads that are terrible people. Who are thieves and liars and lazy to earn such a terrible reputation but we have yet to meet nomads like that.

We have met beautiful, generous, hard working individualists. People who are misunderstood because they don’t easily fit into boxes. When people are different and don’t fit easily into boxes it seems easier for the general public to fear and justify their fear by demonising.

It has been very exciting to see how places are popping up around the globe like this. Little bits of paradise for community among the misunderstood and marginalized.

No longer are people waiting for institutions and governments to step in and “do something”.

No, normal people putting everything on the line, life savings, homes, pride to create a safe haven.

Be it a haven for the wanderers, the abused, the homeless or the stolen of this world.

A few tents in the jungle so villagers can run from men with guns.

A large house or a dilapidated castle for abused artists to be fed and nursed back to life so they can find their voices again.

A few acres of farmland in the deep south of America for wanderers to rest, receive and give. A place to be part of a community that flows in and out, like the nucleus of an atom with the electrons swirling about, coming in and out in a life-giving dance.

I see so much for potential of good in Nomadic people. To do so much with so little. To turn back to comfort in order to live a life of conviction. To give so eagerly with no “agenda” for return.

So, you want to sponsor us to walk? We like walking. We like Pilgrimages. We will walk anyways because every step we take means something. If you sponsor us you can add a tinkle of a bell or a beat of a drum or a yell from a megaphone to every step we take.  Every step counts. Every cent helps.

Now time to go down and get ready for all the pilgrims showing up to walk later today.