.....and thank goodness for travel. of any sort. because it pries you open. helps you to see what you're missing... the good, the bad, the terrifying... and the peculiarly & unexpectedly beautiful.... the orchids blooming in the cracks of cement... days spent communing with a long stretch of open highway and my thoughts... reminding myself to breathe, breathe.. be still... Enjoy.
....days of napping in the back seat, ensconced like a giant human S...waking up with a stiff neck to view the world.. anew.... days of road food & NPR... of blisteringly strong coffee & motel sheets.... of gorgeous rock formations and the dancing of the light... of clear gulf waters & magnolia trees bowing to the ground.... of reminders of home.. of the joy of forgetting.... of travelling to the end of the road... and finding you had a home... a face & a fellow... perhaps you'd forgotten... of warm & rowdy & scintillating conversation over an afternoon's third round of canned beers... of rest... of sunshine... of heat.... of prying your head out of your damn ass long enough to wake up and see that there is a surplus of spunk & beauty EVERYWHERE!!! .. if you know how to tilt your head and look.. just right... of yes's & thank you's & please. Please. Yes. MORE. ... let this ever-unfurling journey continue... without... Within....
and i am reminded that people are people.. everywhere you go. the same.. just.. Different. and as much seemingly bad is marring the world today.. there is so. Much. Good. Shit. Yes!!! it just becomes a matter of what you are staring at... and so you follow... so you become....
and i am reminded to get off my high horse, temporarily abandon my flowery speech & high-minded asceticism... and abandon all names.. all credos... and to just be. humble. simple. Breathe. .... for there are many things which i aspire to... beautiful words & notions... pillars of word & vow unfurling day-after-day, a large, pink cloud nestling my mind's eye...
and i am reminded that this means nothing - NOTHING!!! if my perfumed words & honeyed descriptives amount to a putrefied hill of beans.. worse! ...."if i can move mountains but have not love......" ......
it is like my good friend Noah says... a self-described Buddhist.. and athiest... how would you characterize this brand of Buddhism you practice there Noah???.... simple, he says.. with an ever-present glint in his eye... i live by 4 simple words.. Just... "Don't be an asshole!" .... and it's great. and it's sterling. and, in a way... amazing.. in it's ability to reduce all the evocative images i keep stashed in my head.... memes on how to be, and how to live & the sacredness of things & life & bla bla bla.... Noah takes it down to a science.. exacting & true.
Don't be an asshole. ...
think about it. ....
covering so much with such minimal verbage... don't take what is not yours... be kind. always treat others with as much integrity & respect as you possibly can!!! (even if you feel you've been shafted in this way...) ... look for the good. ... recycle. take care of the planet that has made your own human life possible... etc. etc. ETC....
and so for the moment, as the last leg of my journey continues... i temporarily am stripped of all my high-minded badges and -isms.... i step down off my petty soapbox & party platforms... i give up. i pledge my allegiance to these simple words...
...because in the end... eloquence serves me little... poetry turns toxic... distasteful.. foul.... if the life that i am leading... bears no resemblance to my faustian semantics... say less. do more. and let your own life & light shine so humbly & Brightly... there are no need for words.....
