Not the high mountain monastery you had hoped for, the real face of your spiritual practice is this: the sweat that pearls on your cheek when you tell me the truth; your silent shriek in the night when you think you’re alone; the trembling in your own hand as you reach out through the years of overcoming to touch what you had hoped you would never need again. “Practice” -Kim Rosen
September 29, 2020
I spent six weeks at the end of this summer renovating a 30 year old RV [who I am lovingly referring to as Dora] to take me on an adventure. We took off on our maiden voyage Monday September 21 to live and work on the road for the next ~6 months while seeking out more of life's wonders in a time when the world has [rightfully so] seemed to have forgotten the beauty amongst all the strife we've seen in 2020. I was asked by friends, family, colleagues, and clients to start a blog/instagram [I’m doing both] to follow the journey. I am here delivering on my commitment to the practice of writing and documenting my travels. Each time I set out on a new travel adventure, I always intend to write more, and once the travel is done I wish I had been more diligent about capturing the highlights, the challenges, and what I took away from the experience. I have that strong desire, and simultaneously find myself wanting even more to be utterly lost in that moment communing with a new place. Not finding myself wondering how I might put into words or images what I’m experiencing. Not striving to make this precious moment last forever. Because of course, so much of the beauty in those moments of pure joy, inspiration, or surpassing a struggle is knowing that the moment is passing away before my very eyes. As everything does. The other morning I pondered this dilemma, and by luck [or synchronicity] I found myself sipping on a cup of freshly brewed Aeropress coffee and the medicine words of Mary Oliver. Soaking up her words as if she was speaking directly to me… Of this there is no question — creative work requires loyalty as complete as the loyalty of water to the force of gravity. My loyalty is to the inner vision, whenever and howsoever it may arrive. The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave it neither power nor time.* So, I'm declaring that my creative work — my writing and documenting of this journey — has my Power and Time. May you, and the brilliance of a kindred spirit who knew the temple that is the natural world, be my witness.
Weekly Wheels of Wisdom (Lessons from the road)
Live your values. Here are three of mine I’ve recommitted to on this journey… Freedom. Find it in open roads. I’m saying hello again to one of my greatest teachers and my heart is exploding. The open roads show me the way and invite me to say YES! to all of life's experiences. It’s funny how little it takes to see the world anew when you step out of the familiar and into varying perspectives. When you make moves, expand your horizons - life shows up to guide you. This is my reality now. I’m untethered yet more grounded than I’ve felt in months and I owe it i to the freedom I feel driving open roads, with nothing but big sky to greet me. What gives you that sense of freedom, how can you embrace it this week?
Adventure.
Seek it out.
Adventure takes all shapes and sizes. My adventure moment will likely be wildly different than yours. And that’s perfect. But one must choose it and create the opportunities to live your own adventure. If you chose a life of adventure; you will not be disappointed. Because in fact, adventure is seeking out the unknown. It's letting life surprise you — when you do, you inherently drop expectations and there’s nothing to be disappointed over. So let life thrill you. How will you seek out adventure this week, leave your comfort zone behind and say yes to the mystery of life?
Growth. Life is a practice. My beloved therapist mailed me a send-off gift, a poetry deck she put together, and the above poem “Practice” was the card I picked this week. Along the winding journey of repairing and renewing Dora, I found myself feeling so lost. As each new challenge came up (and there were many) it was as if all my spiritual work had gone out the window. The me that I'd come to know - the one who worked so hard to be steady & equanimous, vanished. I lost my cool more times than I can count – I was far from the “high mountain monastery” but I see now how it was all part of my practice . Oh how I grew through the many pearls of sweat on my cheek. How many times I had to face the difficult truth. What challenges (or opportunities) is life giving you this week to practice living a path aligned with your greatness?
