A Waitress, two Hippies and a boy named “Doc”

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

We have the opportunity to meet so many people as we travel the open road, living fulltime in our RV.  In every encounter, we seek to edify the person…to not just bark out an order from the menu, or plop down our money for gas, but to see the beauty and worth and greatness in that one who is standing before us.

It’s simple to edify someone, to recognize their contribution to the world, no matter who they are, what they do, or where they work.  All it takes is a compliment.  It is recognizing the person that is standing there and taking an interest in them instead of expecting them to take an interest in you.

Sometimes, the most overlooked, under-appreciated person is the waitress.  We meet lots of them since we live full-time in our RV – a mobile lifestyle that finds us sitting in the booth at Dennys (one of our favorite restaurants.) 

Last night, we met Sarah, a young mom who started working a month ago at Dennys.  We fell in love with her as soon as she excitedly shared it was her son’s 5th birthday.  As she talked about him, her eyes lit up and her face glowed with love and admiration, joy and hope for this little boy.

When we learned that they named their little boy “Doc” – we knew this was someone who, maybe without even realizing it, was speaking achievement and success into their child’s precious little mind.

For the rest of his life, Doc Sullivan will be introduced as such, and immediately associated with being a doctor.  Doesn’t matter if he choose a different profession, his name alone will be associated with the title given to physicians and well-educated people.

I happen to think that is one of the most awesome names for a boy that I’ve ever heard!

She told us that she had researched the name and discovered there had only been eighty people named “Doc” since 1880!  Doc Liam Sullivan – you are destined for greatness!

Before we left, we asked Sarah the one question that we ask everyone:

“What would you do if time and money were no object?”

Now, some people stumble over that question, have trouble giving a definite answer…can’t seem to put it into words.

Not Sarah.  Immediately, she said, “I would homestead.”

Again, her eyes lit up, her face glowed and she spoke with a spirited determination that tells me, her dream will come true.

Why?  Because she KNOWS exactly what she wants in life.  She is clear about it and it is engrained in her mind so deeply that when asked – she states it, claims it and speaks it with fire!

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” –Napoleon Hill

I had to Google “homesteading” because I thought it applied to our ancestors –the pioneers who traveled across the frontier to stake claim on a piece of land for their family, totally self-sufficient – depending on their skills and hard work to provide for their needs.

Homesteading is a growing movement as people decide to create their own economy by doing exactly what our ancestors did.  Growing your own food, raising chickens, goats, pigs, cows…providing for your own family and even marketing your surplus to provide healthy food for others. 

At the end of our meal, I realized that we and Sarah are traveling the same journey but we’re taking different paths. The journey is leading to living our dreams.  Her dream is homesteading. Our dream is living a life of freedom on the open road.  Our goal is the same – to be self-sufficient, to be free, to create our own economy.

Sarah and her husband will do it by homesteading.  We are doing it by blogging.  It all comes down to the desire to break free…free from society that dictates where and what you do…free from dependence on government to provide for your needs…free to add increase into your life and the lives of others by doing what your heart tells you to do.

Freedom.  Simple Freedom. 

It doesn’t get any better than this, folks!

Aren’t you done with depending on someone else to tell you when you can be free…free to take a day off, free to take a vacation? Click the link above.