Braving The Storm

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Braving The Storm

Behind the Book

October 31, 2026 3 min read

Braving the Storm in Gus the Bus: What Vanlife and Tarot Teaches Me About Uncertainty

There are moments when the romance of life on the road is rather severely tested.

This week, Geoff, Flynn and I were parked in Dysart on Scotland’s Firth of Forth. Then the wind arrived.

For most of the night, it howled around Gus the Bus like a banshee. Gus rocked and swayed. Geoff remained reassuringly practical: most of the bus’s weight is at the bottom, he explained, so we weren’t going to tip over.

I was grateful for the engineering lesson. I was still nervous.

Flynn seemed untroubled, although he did abandon his usual spot at the foot of the bed and curl up against my legs. Perhaps he was looking after me. Perhaps he simply fancied somewhere warmer.

The morning after

When morning finally came, the sky was blue.

Flynn and I went down to the beach, and I found myself remembering the walks we’ve shared on beaches all across Europe. Different stretches of sand, different countries, but always the familiar pleasure of wandering together.

The wind was still high, yet the world had changed. Later, the Hunter’s Moon appeared over the sea in a beautifully clear sky.

It’s extraordinary how a night that feels endless can give way to an entirely different morning.

The freedom and uncertainty of vanlife

When we gave up the cottage and moved into Gus, we were making a choice about how we wanted to live. But choosing freedom doesn’t mean choosing a life without fear.

Sometimes the freedom is wonderful. Sometimes, at four in the morning with the bus shaking around me, I wonder what on earth we’re doing.

I suspect that’s true of many of life’s bigger changes. We can want something deeply and still be frightened by the uncertainty it brings.

A home on wheels simply makes that uncertainty a little harder to ignore.

The cards that help me make sense of it

I often think in Tarot images. During the storm, The Tower came to mind: the structures that make us feel secure suddenly shaking.

The card after The Tower is The Star. In my deck, it’s a view through a window towards a bright star and a path beyond a gate. I thought of that card as I walked beside the sea the next morning.

It isn’t about pretending difficult things won’t happen. It’s about remembering that what we feel in the middle of an experience isn’t always the whole story.

Behind The Bus at the End of the World

That tension between uncertainty and possibility is woven through my book, The Bus at the End of the World. It tells the story of how Geoff, Flynn and I let go of the cottage, moved into Gus and began finding our way through a very different kind of life.

Tarot has been part of that journey, not as a guarantee that everything will go smoothly, but as a way of asking questions when the road ahead is unclear.

I can’t say I felt especially brave while the wind was screaming around Gus. But I did feel grateful for the blue sky, the beach and Flynn’s company the next morning.

Perhaps beginning again is often like that: a frightening night followed by a reminder that there’s still a world waiting outside.

You can find out more about The Bus at the End of the World through my linktr.ee.com/JanisKing

Janis

Janis King — Writer, Creative and Tarot Fueled Spiritual Adventurer.