Every step of the journey IZ the journey... where we have been before and where we are going is all relative to where we are at this very moment. Humanity has long suffered from a condition called "waiting". Believing its all gonna get better sooner or later... expectations that exhaust and frustrate us and waste our time. Life is too short for that.
A long drive fills my head with lots of wide open spaces and imagery for songs yet to be written... at the same time I find company in audiobooks as I listened to the familiar wisdom of Eckhart Tolle (enjoy this link to some of it) http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/EckhartTolle.html . With each mile I proceeded to empty my own head of clogged up irrelevant thoughts and started getting back in touch with my own inner stillness. There's something about driving that gets me closer to that place beyond the captivating beauty of external forms with names... that place where a state of connectedness with something immeasurable, indestuctible and greater than me exists... where I am totally here and present... where my true nature and inner essence of all things around me is revealed beyond the need for labels and prescribed form. Enlightenment for me is just being... being right here, right now... in a simple state of one-ness... simply aware of myself without all the mental noise... denying my ego of it's collected accomplishments that comprise its mind-based identity and ultimate control over me, me. me, me , me... "Eh, you somebody?" ha ha aka aka! K-den, I better stop thinkin' and let the smoke clear. Nice road, big hills, big trees and not too much traffic. This Cadillac I'm driving is a good, smooth ride. The weather is still cool and a leather or denim jacket was more than enough. Ate salads, crab & fresh fish to mexican food and fried chicken but took a break from my favorite Best Foods mayonaise. Its very refreshing and funny that I was on this journey before and might have always been clawing my way back. Maybe I never left it and have been hanging on to most of it all this time. I was already immersed in that type of discipline in the early seventies through martial arts and progressive youthful curiousity. Looks like I've kick-started it again in California... deja vu... San Francisco, Highway 101, mount Shasta, the Pacific Highway, the redwood forest... where this land was made for you and me. The country side looks just like the way Mr. Guthrie described it in a folk song... pretty much how I left it over 30 years ago~ "we have all been here before, we have all been here before..." (CSN&Y)
Time to get back to the cruise ships this weekend.
