Know Up Front

Jade in the Comfort Zone

I continue to counsel myself that this is simply a ten day vacation. No big. Take some time to re-set, relax and rediscover the wonders of nature. Eight hundred miles along the Pacific Coast, camping on the beach, riding my bike, capturing video and one hundred push-ups a day has gotta be good for the soul. It isn’t like this will be my virgin rodeo, I have sat in the saddle of long coastal treks many times. 

But this one is somehow, in some way, different. And I don’t know why. It could be, I trust it to be, that I am so pumped for the trip that the simple delight over the smell of salt water mixed with the score-like hiss of relentless waves on the beach opens the spillways of endorphin flow. 

Today, ER (Epic Ride) minus one, is finally here. I wish I could honestly report to be one hundred percent packed, ready and loaded for bear, but my to-do list keeps growing like out-of-control blackberry brambles. The more you hack the more you have to hack. Begging the question, if this is so, why hack at all?

Because, like mountains, they are there. There is a song waiting to be sung, or written, that can only be brought into creative fruition by doing. By taking the risk of walking (or riding) into the darkness of the unknown with nothing but a flashlight and a dream. We chase the mysterious and magical abstract known by many names, but in adventure-speak, known as the experience. Experience that is only borne by doing. I must stand at the base of the mountain and raise my gaze towards its top. I must imagine what it would feel like to stand way up there and wonder what the journey would be like to achieve such a lofty goal. I need to address my fears and face the facts that such a courageous endeavor will be dangerous. Like Indy Jones, I must rise above the phobia warning that there could be snakes, some poisonous, patiently waiting for a chance at an ankle strike. Conversely I could always just peacefully sit on the deck and watch the jade plant grow. 

Life, the experience, is most colorful and invigorating when we decide to act. It is in the going and doing that we find the magic. That search almost always starts where our comfort zones end. Peak experiences are simply not available on a screen, no matter the size, resolution, bandwidth or content. Trying to live your life with purpose, meaning and authentic presence while starring into a device will eventually end with a 404 error. Meaningful content currently unavailable (please move closer to the signal source.)

The source is our soul. The spirit we find when we mix it up with nature, with movement and with purpose. It is relaxing into the yin while surrounded by a thousand competing yangs. It is like the poor guy falling from the sixty story building thinking at the twentieth floor, ‘so far so good.’  That type of presence is the goal. To be totally alive in every moment, in the rain, through the wind and smoke, when the going gets tough and especially when the tough have already turned pro and we are left surrounded by amateurs, frauds and vampires. 

I have considered going off the grid for the next ten days as part of my trip. I have considered going on a fast, using no alcohol as a tool for stress management and using the course and mileage as a rolling retreat. I have considered sitting on the beach in deep meditation and tracing the shoreline with the footsteps of a thousand mile walking meditation. 

But my trip, this one, is about reclaiming the joy, gratitude and experience of awareness. I sense a need to capture new ways to explore whatever consciousness and results will come from putting myself into the mix. Into the energy flow of the cosmos. Out there, up there and in there. 

Where every here is there and everywhere is always here. 

Yes, there is a lot to do today in final preparation. I am ready. It is gray and cold. True to the titular, this will be a TDI, a Ten Day Intensive. I will attempt a daily update, but be advised that along this route there will be areas where the communications will be telepathic.

Know up front that I choose love.