Sometime around 6pm on the evening of Thursday, March 22nd, I went to the room I'd occupied for the last 12 weeks and spent about twenty minutes massaging my cats and trying to manifest as much strength and stoicism as I could, since I believe that our emotions tend to be mirrored by our animal companions. When I left that room and walked down the hallway to the living room, something very natural happened that should have been predictable but took me quite by surprise... I realized that I was starting to cry. This rarely happens, and when it does it is so strange because it's as if I become aware of the physiological indicators of the act before I understand the purpose. As if I'd forgotten that crying isn't something you decide to do, but something you are moved to do. Those girls had lived with me for the last eight years, and it would be at least nine months until I would see them again. And I couldn't communicate this to them, or at least be sure that they understood.
I gathered my emotions and went to the back room to tell my Aunt that it was finally time for me to head out. She walked to the front door with me, where we hugged goodbye and expressed our gratitude for having been given the opportunity to spend the Winter together. Family is essential, the roots from which we spread out into the world. This year, I'd landed back on a branch of the tree for a time and was made more aware of the sap beneath the bark, spreading out to the furthest branches and twigs.
At 7pm, I headed out the door. My plan had been to leave the previous day, my birthday - March 21st, the traditional first day of Spring. Several things held me up, and maybe for the better; I'd decided that this would be a nine-month journey, ending on 12/21. Maybe it makes more sense to wait until the end of the Winter Solstice, however, and consider the journey ended on 12/22.
Today is Monday, and it is now 4pm. In 3 hours, it will be four days since I left the place that had been my home for the last 3 months. A lot has happened already. As I assumed would be the case, the first days of traveling have been filled with adventure, awe, adjusted expectations, trial-and-error, and a few chance encounters. However, the learning curve with adjusting to my new computer tablet has prevented me from telling this story so far. Basically, this is just a "Hello" from the public library in the City of Napa, the city I've actually been for nearly two days. As soon as I can work out some of these glitches, I will post again.
I gathered my emotions and went to the back room to tell my Aunt that it was finally time for me to head out. She walked to the front door with me, where we hugged goodbye and expressed our gratitude for having been given the opportunity to spend the Winter together. Family is essential, the roots from which we spread out into the world. This year, I'd landed back on a branch of the tree for a time and was made more aware of the sap beneath the bark, spreading out to the furthest branches and twigs.
At 7pm, I headed out the door. My plan had been to leave the previous day, my birthday - March 21st, the traditional first day of Spring. Several things held me up, and maybe for the better; I'd decided that this would be a nine-month journey, ending on 12/21. Maybe it makes more sense to wait until the end of the Winter Solstice, however, and consider the journey ended on 12/22.
Today is Monday, and it is now 4pm. In 3 hours, it will be four days since I left the place that had been my home for the last 3 months. A lot has happened already. As I assumed would be the case, the first days of traveling have been filled with adventure, awe, adjusted expectations, trial-and-error, and a few chance encounters. However, the learning curve with adjusting to my new computer tablet has prevented me from telling this story so far. Basically, this is just a "Hello" from the public library in the City of Napa, the city I've actually been for nearly two days. As soon as I can work out some of these glitches, I will post again.
Where will you be staying, eating, pooping, as you run from there to there?
ReplyDeleteLady J: Sorry for the late response. To answer your question(s)... I don't know. I did a lot of planning for this trip but most of that was conceptual rather than detail-oriented. I've been dream-journaling for a few years, and the idea was to try to relinquish conscious control and allow unconscious processes and intuition to take over. Even the few concept-oriented expectations that I projected upon this journey have mostly been reconfigured, if not outright dismissed. For instance - I have a running-related foot injury and had not done any running up until today. I shaved my beard sometime around Day 4. So, just looking at the expectations I had based on the title of this thing, I'm not "running" down a dream (though I did a shit-ton of walking the first week), I'm not "barefoot" (that was a little disengenuous even fom the start, as I run in Vibram 5-fingers and have done very little actual "barefoot running" since moving from Hermosa Beach at the end of last year), and I'm not beirded (although I'm still a weirdo). So, things like where to eat, poop, and sleep just kind of work themselves out. I haven't had to poop in nature yet, which is nice. I've certainly placed my golden signature off the road of many a highway. Where I've slept has been a pendulum swinging between luxury and depravity. I've slept under awnings and in wooden bus shelters, but also several nights on the couch of my pal Barnaby in Sacramento and there was one night - actually night # two - where I totally wussed out and avoided the rain by staying in the only available room the Internet could find for me in the City of Sonoma: a bed n breakfast that cost about 5X my daily budget. Anyway, technical difficulties have kept me from writing much but I'm holing up in Sacramento for the time being; resting my foot and hoping to work out the glitches and get the story up to date. I appreciate the handful of readers I have and hope to gain some more as I get better at all this stuff.
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