I'll kick this off by saying that this isn't really going to be a trip report. Simply too many things happened over the Winter over 2018-2019 to tell them all. If you are curious, I have a series of posts on Instagram of ten photos each with captions detailing some of the adventures.
This post is really a distilling of some of the core lessons that came out of my time on the road, starting with a big one: Surrender!
Surrender is something I am actually especially comfortable with. It feels good to me, there is a feeling of ease in surrender. So while it's a lesson, it was one I was prepared for and one that I always savour digging in to. The rational mind needs to be in control, or wants to anyway. And surrender is a balm to the hyper active logical principal. It defies the machinations of mind and simply says: "tough luck, you get to watch the show". For those that really like control, or who think they do :P, this is a lip burner. But surrender is the most beautiful of processes and such a gift in the softening and opening of the heart that comes with it.
On this road trip, I was perpetually reminded to let go. I had no real plan or agenda, except that I wanted to be in the sun ☀️. I work on the internet, I literally could have no plans except to find a coffee shop most week days to get some work done. This became my main surrender practice, to let go of the need to do things, or go places. Ironic, I know, as I mostly spent the entire Winter going places, but on a day to day level, microcosmically, I had to, each day, remind myself to be here now. There's no place to go, there's nothing to do, just be here now and savour this moment, because tomorrow you may well be elsewhere entirely. Of course, there were also times when situations outside my control caused me to stay some where longer than planned, like in Ojai when I had to get my front break callipers replaced. No problem, let go and root down into right here, right now.
Feeling at ease with this practice was really rewarding, it showed me that I'm not nearly so attached to outcome as I once was, that I was truly open to what the road has to offer and I feel this is the best way to travel. In fact, this whole trip was so overwhelmingly positive, I almost feel like I didn't get the full value, where was the strife! the struggle, the hardship the road so often demands. Oh well, that too, I surrender.
The emergent sensation is one of Gratitude. Gratitude for the friends I made and the relationships that were strengthened, if not reforged. Gratitude for safely navigating over 8000km of unfamiliar terrain in a 25 year old Japanese diesel truck. Gratitude for the hospitality shown to me, the love uncovered in unexpected places, the wild spaces, the urban environments, my fellow travellers, the landed gentry, the sun, the ocean, the red woods. Above all it was beautiful to connect with so many people along the way. Almost everyone asks if I was lonely. To be honest, I could have used more solitude! It seemed every where I went I made friends, or knew some folks and there was a surprising amount of connection and sharing going on; not what I expected but I'm truly grateful for all those whose path I crossed and I so look forward to visiting LA next month for Jordan's wedding and seeing friends, some of the newest and some of the oldest.
The last mantra that emerged from this wandering came to me upon return, and that is the idea that there is more where that came from. Just more. More more more! More love and more adventure and more people to meet and more old friends to reconnect with and more abundance in the universe and more laughter and joy and fun. More of all of it for everyone #morelife. It's actually something I can remember my Dad saying when we were young, usually in reference to money! Which I think is just the greatest idea to plant in your child's mind about money, there's more! Such a feeling of safety and abundance contained therein. I now say it to myself regularly, about anything, but it's a good one for the money game if that's a challenge, which it is for me some days.
So there you have it, the inward stuff :)
Love & Light