Shower the people with Love

Earlier this morning, while sitting at the local cafe for a breakfast alone, I tuned-out in my reading of The Week magazine. For those unfamiliar with The Week it is this one condensed source of news I can rely on to come back up-to-date with what's happening in the world. Immersed in the reading I failed to notice the seeming calamity going-on to my right and left. Tuning-in to the reality of the cafe scene now and again I was treated to James Taylor singing through the speakers to ...shower the people you love with love... and I smiled at that notion. Going back to my reading I had smiles and easiness on my mind. Though, as I turned the page I came back out of that concentrated medium of reading the written word to something not what James was just uttering.

Oddly enough, on both sides of me, the couples at each table were squabbling about things that I didn't quite grasp from my brief prying. But, from what I could ascertain, I did gather that they were in respectively separate debates of the heated sort with one another about things that didn't pertain or matter to me. What did matter, however, was that after noticing both couples on both sides, I couldn't help but wonder if they hadn't just heard the song that was playing. Surely, they would have stopped and retraced their steps with forgiveness and uttered, "I'm sorry, I love you regardless;" right?

Hmmm...

Anyways, speaking of love, I'm in love with the idea of moving outdoors. Perhaps there will one day be a lil lady to shift that love, and surely I know she is out there - but till I am with her completely, I will harbor and grow my expanding love for mother nature. Today, I set-up my home for the next month. I was overjoyed to put my physical strengths to work this past week and again today digging out the 2+ feet of snow to shape my 10 x 20 foot rectangle. It seems there is never a dull moment in my infancy of living outdoors. Tonight, as in in the next 30 minutes, once I depart the warmth and comfort of indoor plumbing, electric lights and heat, I will be at home in my spacious tent. With the sugary accumulation of snow coming down, the foothills of the Rockies I will call my home. And, it is in this space that I will move to shower others with my love for being alive. Thank you for this! I am grateful...indeed.

Home sweet snowy home! 

Warm thoughts of Love,
Alan

Gratitude is the Attitude

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Even before I take my first step I gotta give props where it is due: my family. Without my family I am unsure of where I would be, or if I'd even have this upcoming chance to move outside into a tent. My attitude in this moment is one of gratitude; gratefulness for them and their love and support towards me.

My first step, then, is to embrace the decision I am making. To live in the presence of joy and appreciation at the life I am able to live and breathe! There surely is a reason why I am still alive, and until that is known - if ever - I will continue to develop moments towards gratitude and things that I have freely and persistently. Thank you for an ability to trust, especially when the whole cannot be seen. 

Two pieces of the puzzle materialized today: my tent arrived and an affordable pair of snowshoes were purchased serendipitously off of a local man through Craigslist. Few hypothetical pieces remain, though thankfully, the biggest piece of all is always within you and I: belief.

Appreciation in that,

Alan


Slow cheetah come
Before my forest
Looks like it's on today

Slow cheetah come
It's so euphoric
No matter what they say

Preparations and plans have begun!

The Great March Move-out: this notion that beginning at the start of March, I am moving outside into a tent is off and running. A Hilleberg 4 season tent - spacious beyond belief, I might add, as well as a zero degree sleeping bag are on their way in the mail.

Hilleberg Keron 4 GT

I am excited for this new chapter in my life where instead of reading books inside about the outdoors, I'll be outside reading books about just that. To live, to feel, what it takes to exist outside in the winter time is something I look forward to!

More to come as the train comes down the tracks. Cheers!
Alan

In that moment, what else matters?

Do you ever find yourself being taken-over by the moment? Today, while occupying my morning time before work I was treated to a short, but complete space-out in the following Jimi Hendrix Experience song (works best on the blog site):

The final minute and 20 seconds grip me; in this space nothing cognitive registers. The intensity of the moment of bliss builds; I feel a recognized and complete soul for this fleeting moment of rapture. (Perhaps if you aren't feeling it, you need to turn the music up) As to let it take-over, to permeate you...to echo off something inside of you that isn't usually touched by every day life.

I often think of the way that songs such as these make me feel, and wonder what my daily life would be like if I could take them with me and just blast them, as to share the moment of musical joy with others - just to see if they, too, feel it?

Then I come back down to reality, aided by that which is right now: eat, sleep, work, repeat. I look forward to the future; to that moment where the music keeps playing on, and I, in the ecstasy, infinitely illimitable live full, fuller, fully!

To blessed bliss in your day,
Alan

where does the trail lead? Doesn't really matter, does it? 

"How Shall I Live My Life?"

A few questions for ponderance from an interview with Kathleen Dean Moore, environmental philosopher, author, and professor of environmental philosophy and ethics at Oregon State University:

Question 1: 

If place is this important in our construction of ourselves, and we are never in one place, what will become of us? Context: Memories live in places, and you can find them if you go there...

Question 2: 

If people are defined by their landscapes, what happens to our selves - our integrity, our wholeness - when the landscape is destroyed?

what happens when this sight, this wonder, this beauty is no more?