Tags
#trust30, adventure, alone in the wilderness, bucket list, dick proenneke, poetry, ralph waldo emerson, Seth Godin, solitude and silence, travel
Though back in the States, I was informed that it’s more than a month’s wait for internet intallation in my new residence! Things have gone downhill big time since I left 2 years ago! Anyway, onward and upward. Here’s the 5th challenge:
Not everyone wants to travel the world, but most people can identify at least one place in the world they’d like to visit before they die. Where is that place for you, and what will you do to make sure you get there?
I have traveled quite a bit for someone my age. A month in China, 2 years in France, 3 months in Morocco, visits to Mexico, Malaysia, Russia, and South Africa! And I don’t have a dream spot, in the sense of a beautiful place that I hope to see someday. In other words, there is no bucket list on which I keep future dream vacation spots listed. But, two things have come to mind when thinking about this challenge. I wanted to share about the first which is the fact that I really long for an extended time in nature.
Now, I’m now grizzly Adams or Dick Proenenke from Alone in the Wilderness books and DVDs which I love. I’m not talking about roughing it, but being comfortable in the midst of it. Comfortable in two senses. First, I’m a cabin guy, preferably with A/C and running water! I want enough physical “comfort” to keep any discomfort from getting in the way of the other sense of being comfortable in the middle of nowhere; namely, comfortable with solitude and silence and the drummings of my own mind. I want to be comfortable with no wifi and no cellphone…no laptop, no DVDs, and no OnDemand. I want to be comfortable with the sludge that comes to the surface in my heart and soul when there is nothing else left to distract me from it. I want to be comfortable with a day where a book and animals passing by is my only entertainment, a day where I’m not allowed to go find something to do, unless it involves dirt, trees, animals, grass, fields, flowers, and sky.
I don’t want these things now. What I mean is that this is a desire that has been born in me and is growing, but I know that now isn’t the right time. Not in the sense that I have too much to do, but more in a season of life, mysterious “your not ready” yet kind of way.