Not an original idea-

Really some will say that the thought of biking to South America sounds scary, or fun or a thousand other things, but to me it is just what I do. It is not that uncommon for people to travel in all unconventional methods all around the world. For me I do not know how the bike became my method, maybe it was like running. I hated running and then I really ran and I found it exhilarating. I guess I would like to run around the world, but to me this is a logistical nightmare and the more logistics the more cumbersome. And travel to me is about freedom. I don’t really like public transportation it feels too much like a can of sardines. And I do not like sardines to eat nor as a metaphorical position in life. With a quick search of the web there are hundreds of people biking around the world, some fast, some slow, some on unlimited budgets and some like bums. If I must fall into one category I would prefer the bum, something about trusting in people, the maker of all things and not in a credit card or a fat bankroll. I like simplicity, the bike seems simple enough.

I have never been happier, and it seems to me that the less “things” I try to hold on to the happier I become. Really all these things in life just bind us and control us. It is a false sense of achievement to own so many things. All the best things in life are free and it is my journey to find them all. This is not an original idea, but just an idea that we are all created for. Not the bike part, but the finding meaning deeper in the well.

I love ideas, thoughts, dreams. I have dreams for a thousand life times. I would give about 600 years to reading all the books in the world and studying all languages, then I would give a hundred to walking the world, exploring mountains and forests, and a hundred or so to drinking tea with people. Then I guess I would give a few years to running a ranch with my father, of course dad we would not have horses. So it would take us a couple more years walking to round up all the cattle. I would love to sail the ocean blue and watch the sunset on a thousand seas. I would love to eat my grandmas french toast and drink milk tea with my sister. Who knows maybe it would not take a thousand years to achieve all of this, but just a life time. But most important of all things to love people, people are the greatest of books and hold things that can never be expressed in the words of a thousand languages. There is tragedy, comedy, romance and history in life. I pondered my life and feel that deep inside that my life will be a tragedy. I don’t necessary know why, but that maybe I will miss a dream, or a hug or a sunset after a rain storm.

Do you ever have that moment when you hear a song or read a poem and you know the words as if they were your own? In the Book I find words that drive my life that some call madness. It is not original, but just a continuation of a hope to love.

The bicycle has wheels that spin, and pedals attached to a frame, positioned sits the rider and forward the whole thing goes. It is simple, not an original idea, but it once was and this idea I am sure was received as well as snow boots in the desert, but then it caught on and was quickly passed by other modes of transportation, those that moved faster, but the faster they became the more they consumed. And here we are today with gas at $3 a gallon, maybe soon you too will ride a bicycle. Which really, it is not about money, which drives most of our decisions, which seems rather sad.

In a thousand years maybe after a thousand books, I could come up with a better way for a better mode of transportation, but the struggle is not with gas prices or stock market prices, but the attitudes of our hearts. We are only slaves to the things we allow ourselves to be. Not so much an original idea.

The blog will continue-

I have decided to keep this blog up. I will not add anymore to it, but I hope that others can read it and be encouraged by it, or at least amused at the least.

Goodbye-

My future plans are to publish my photos and stories from this blog.
I am currently in the States planning my nomadic bike trip around the world, which I hope to leave on in the Spring. I am also designing a webpage where I will sell photography to support my journey.

I am going to edit this blog and take off all the stuff that I have written here in the States, I will start a new blog.
I am not in Central Asia
At the cross roads I turn left
So read on, read on my friend
http://www.thenomadlife.blogspot.com/

I have needed to start a new blog for some time, but sometimes it is hard to say goodbye to the past. Hold on while you can, love like there is no tomorrow and don’t be afraid to walk out into the morning's rising sun.

Down With the Weatherman!-

And down with the weather channel!

How could someone be so happy at ruining life for so many people? People turn on the television and listen to “god” otherwise known as the weatherman on news channel 4, 5, 9 or 25 and that blasted weather channel. I tried to fight it; I refused to let my life revolve around what this man said. But the actions of others won control over my life; he dominated me and ruined my plans for not just Friday, but the whole weekend. These weathermen have cult like powers with all those graphs, charts and figures the viewer cannot change. In A-land we had no weatherman to ruin our plans. We did whatever we wanted because there was no weatherman to control us. In my perfect world full of adventure, freedom and surprise, I would do away with all weathermen and just enjoy every moment for whatever the temperature and whether it was going to rain or not. I love the idea of being caught in a snow storm, or the idea of just taking life as it comes.

My favorite memories of growing up were when we did not have power and we had to learn to “survive.” I think in the States we have taken all the fun out of life. We cannot live a day without power, nor live without eggs, bread or milk. We like to watch TV in our safe living rooms free of all worldly discomforts and if the power is knocked out then a generator helps us get back to that blasted weatherman blabbing about the power being out.

From the Desert-

Writings of the Desert Fathers
From The Wisdom Of The Desert by Thomas Merton

*One Of The Fathers said: Just as it is impossible for a man to see his face in troubled water, so too the soul, unless it be cleansed of alien thoughts, cannot pray to God in contemplation. *

*A Brother said to Abbot Pastor: If I give one of my brothers a little bread of something of the sort, the demons spoil everything and it seems to me that I have acted only to please men. The elder said to him: Even if your good work was done to please, we must still give to our brothers what they need. And he told him this story. Two farmers lived in one village. One of them sowed his field and reaped only a small and wretched crop. The other neglected to sow anyhing at all, and so he reaped nothing. Which of the two will survive if there is a famine? The brother replied: The first one, even though his crop is small and wretched. The elder said to him: Let us also sow, even though our sowing is small and wretched, lest we die in the time of hunger. *


*Once Abbot Macarius was on his way home to his cell from the marshes, carrying reeds, and he met the devil with a reaper's sickle in his path. The devil tried to get to him with the sickle, and couldn't. And he said: I suffer great violence from you, Macarius, because I cannot overcome you. For see, I do all the thing that you do. You fast, and I eat nothing at all. You watch, and I never sleep. But there is one thing alone in which you overcome me. Abbot Macarius said to him: What is that? Your humility, the devil replied, for because of it I cannot overcome you.*

*Blessed Macarius said: This is the truth, if a monk regards contempt as praise, poverty as riches, and hunger as a feast, he will never die. *

(40)-

Images (40) of my last (2) years.

Pictures of the past-

Here are a few pictures I found in a shoe box in my grandma's closet.

My uncle Tony, the only one in my family that is crazier than me.

1974

These hipsters are my great grandparents and grandparents.
1952

My grandpa and great grandpa, they both died when I was 5.

1958

My beautiful mother

My mom with her horse.

This is my great grandma with one of her boyfriends.

We had a good laugh at this one.

1925

Kissing my Grandma-

Some people hold a very special place in my heart.
One of these places is held by my 93 year old great grandma.
My great grandfather died when I was five,
In the last twenty years she has been a live wire of life.
She has the softest hands and the sweetest heart.
She has prayed for me everyday as I traveled the world.
This evening we had dinner together and looked over old photos together.
I love very few things more then the moments we have together.
And there is nothing like kissing my grandma.

Why I am Sad-

In retrospect, I realize why I am sad.
I am in the land of opportunity.
And it feels like I am in the land of compromise.
America the land of the free, but it has become the land of the mindless.
If there is a distraction in this world we have found it.
We are entertaining ourselves to death.
Even church is entertaining, is there truly anything in all the smoke and lights. Luckly I found out that Christmas is not about Jesus but rather it is about me. I sat watching the preacher as he preached me into heaven while I drank my espresso and ate a chocolate cookie all in a convenient hour. So let’s make ourselves comfortable, let’s try to fake a smile and turn up the volume. We fill the silence with noise; we bury ourselves head first in the sand.
It is true no one has any time these days, we are too busy wasting it.
Cold wind blows and all our treasures are swept into the ocean.
I guess deep inside we are all sad for one reason or another.
What makes me sad is that I thought we had it better off, but in reality maybe it is better to live in poverty and die with treasures that can never be lost.

Dogs-

I had forgotten how important dogs were.
Everyone has a dog and every dog has a name.
Every dog then has the dog stuff that goes with dogs.
People talk to their dogs, brush them and take them for rides in the car.
Nothing against dogs, or their owners, but it is quite a strange culture.
No dogs have names in the third world and if they are fed well that is because the dogs are being fattened uped because they are going to be eaten.
Maybe it would be better to be a dog in the developed world then an orphan in the rest of the world.

Selling my soul to sprint-

Do you know that to get a cell phone you have to sign a two year contract?
That feels like a life sentence.
It seems to me that they could have a shorter contract than two years.
But I have a kind family and they let me add a phone to their plan and then I can put it on seasonal when I leave and it is only $4 a month.
In two years no telling where I will be.

Sadness-

Sometimes I get sad.
It hits me very suddenly more recently.
I feel a little lost and anxious.
I want to be alone and yet have someone to talk to.
It is a strange feeling for me.
Many things I can explain and find some logicalness.
Sadness is just sad.
It will pass like so many things.
The sun will shine on my face.
And the sadness will melt away, leaving only the sweet memories.