May 2009

Yes, the RV is home! My new home for the next few years is finally sitting in the driveway; glistening with newness and smelling of newness! I named her “Dare,” not for daring to leave so much behind but because the name brings me the softness and peace of a new beginning. “I’ll put a pebble in my shoe and watch me walk; I can walk, I can walk. I shall call the pebble “Dare.” We talk about walking. And when we both have had enough, I will take Dare from my shoe saying, ‘meet your new road.’” - the words of a song from the musical “Godspell;” from a younger time in my life when I knew every word to every song in every Broadway (and some off Broadway) show before traveling to New Haven or New York to see the live performance. This was before musicals’ settings became so overblown and before shows looked too much alike; a time when songs hung in your head long after the show ended and you joined with strangers singing on the streets on their way to their cars. Dare is also my mother’s middle name; a name I clung to when I first saw it written, placed proudly between her first and our last name. I worried one of my siblings would be given the name, moving it further from me. But, no, Dare was left standing alone as if waiting for me. Dare, the name I sometimes call myself and feel it fits following Ayo. Ayo Dare is me when alone in my room planning my life’s next adventure. Now, Dare sits in the driveway patiently waiting. With a smiling satisfaction, I line the shelves. The stress of packing the house when wanting only to set up the RV and hit the road has driven me to bed for most of the day. Right outside is my new home.